TY - JOUR
T1 - What motivates non-democratic leadership
T2 - Evidence from COVID-19 reopenings in China
AU - Fisman, Raymond
AU - Lin, Hui
AU - Sun, Cong
AU - Wang, Yongxiang
AU - Zhao, Daxuan
PY - 2021/4
Y1 - 2021/4
N2 - We examine Chinese cities’ COVID-19 reopening plans as a window into governments’ economic and social priorities. We measure reopenings based on official government news announcements, and show that these are predicted by citizen discontent, as captured by Baidu searches for terms such as “unemployment” and “protest” in the prior week. The effects are particularly strong early in the epidemic, indicating a priority on initiating economic recovery as early as possible. These results indicate that even a non-democratic government may respond to citizen concerns, possibly to minimize dissent.
AB - We examine Chinese cities’ COVID-19 reopening plans as a window into governments’ economic and social priorities. We measure reopenings based on official government news announcements, and show that these are predicted by citizen discontent, as captured by Baidu searches for terms such as “unemployment” and “protest” in the prior week. The effects are particularly strong early in the epidemic, indicating a priority on initiating economic recovery as early as possible. These results indicate that even a non-democratic government may respond to citizen concerns, possibly to minimize dissent.
KW - Bureaucratic incentives
KW - Unrest
KW - Non-democracy
KW - China
KW - COVID-19
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102653421&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104389
DO - 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104389
M3 - Article
VL - 196
SP - 1
EP - 9
JO - Journal of Public Economics
JF - Journal of Public Economics
SN - 0047-2727
M1 - 104389
ER -