Do weak institutions undermine global innovation production efficiency?

This paper focuses on institutional influences on innovation efficiency across countries. Whereas various causes and effects of technological change have been examined, empirical investigations of the efficiency involved in innovation production are relatively few. Using data on a large sample of nations over 2018-2020 and considering corruption, regulatory quality, and state fragility as alternative institutional dimensions, our results show that greater corruption facilitates ("greases") efficiency in the production of innovations. This is also the case with improvements in regulatory quality, while greater state fragility increases inefficiency. These findings for the overall sample are somewhat different for the OECD and non-OECD subsamples, although the greasing effect of corruption remains throughout. A robustness check with patent protection and government size as alternative institutional dimensions is also conducted.

COVID-19 vaccine rollout-scale and speed carry different implications for corruption.

The sanctioning of different coronavirus vaccines (with some approved by regulators for public delivery, and others in the pipeline) has met with relief by many sections of the public and the government. However, partly due to the damages associated with the pandemic and the ensuing euphoria over vaccines' arrival, some of the challenges are mostly being ignored or are not recognized. This paper identifies some pitfalls and drawbacks in vaccine delivery. We argue that the somewhat unique tension between the speed of vaccine delivery and its scale can create opportunities for corrupt behavior that are often at odds with effective means to check abuse. While data on instances of abuse will emerge over time, it is useful to point out different avenues of abuse so that some preventive government actions can be undertaken. Specifically, we argue that the potential for out of turn delivery of vaccines and the stockpiling by unauthorized agents creates incentives for corruption, with the public or bureaucrats initiating corrupt transactions. An understanding of the potential avenues for corruption should guide the formulation of appropriate corruption-control policies and similar challenges that will be faced by policy makers in addressing future pandemics.

Explaining vaccine hesitancy: A COVID-19 study of the United States.

Using recent data on the unvaccinated population across US states, this paper focuses on the determinants of vaccine hesitancy related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings show that more prosperous states and states with more elderly residents and more physicians have lower vaccine hesitancy. There was some evidence of the significance of race, but internet access and history of other contagious diseases failed to make a difference. States with centralized health systems and those with mask mandates generally had a lower percentage of unvaccinated populations. Finally, the presence of Democrats in state legislatures tended to lower vaccination hesitancies, ceteris paribus.

Do disease epidemics force economic activity underground? International evidence.

This article studies the impact of disease epidemics on the worldwide prevalence of the shadow or the underground economy. The informal sector has low entry barriers and provides an easy short-term option for the supply of goods and services during epidemics when traditional supply lines are cut or strained. Furthermore, the enforcement resources might be directed elsewhere during epidemics, lowering the expected costs of shadow operations. Using data for over 125 nations, we find that the incidence of epidemics positively and significantly contributes to the spread of the underground sector. These findings withstand a series of robustness checks.

Managing the risk of COVID-19 via vaccine passports: Modeling economic and policy implications.

The increasing use of vaccine passports (VPs) to certify immunity from the prevailing coronavirus has created positive and negative aspects that have shaken the workings of markets. The VPs are, however, not universally used and not required by all businesses and governments at this point. Given the newness associated with VPs and the ongoing uncertainty of the pandemic, full implications of VPs have not been considered. This paper provides some formal insights into the implications of the use of VPs, borrowing from the established economic theory. Recommendations for public policy are provided.

Death takes no bribes: Impact of perceived corruption on the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions at combating COVID-19.

Corruption is considered in the literature as an activity with several externalities and spillover effects. Adding to the recent research on the corruption-COVID-19 nexus, we study the impact of corruption on coronavirus cases. High perceived levels of corruption have been proven to lead to lower institutional trust, and hence possibly to lower levels of citizen compliance with non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), such as lockdowns, imposed by the authorities during the first wave of the pandemic to reduce the spread of coronavirus. Applying quantitative analysis with the use of hybrid models, we find that in countries with higher levels of perceived corruption, across alternative corruption measures, more COVID-19 cases are observed, ceteris paribus. This suggests that corruption has a detrimental effect on the spread of COVID-19, and that countries experiencing higher levels of corruption should pay extra attention when implementing NPIs.

Unmasking the demand for masks: Analytics of mandating coronavirus masks.

This paper analytically examines the demand for surgical masks following the recent health precautions due to coronavirus. Using a simple linear demand curve and alternatively examining the impacts of requirements that mandate (a) the wearing of masks by frontline workers; (b) suggested but not required masking by the whole public; and (c) compulsory masking by the whole public. The impacts of the different scenarios on the price elasticity of demand are determined along with the slope (or the rate of change) of elasticity. Some of these results differ when a non-linear demand curve is considered instead. The equilibrium mask prices increase when masks are universally mandated, whereas the consumer surplus is higher when masks are recommended but not mandated. However, the ranking of consumer surplus is shown to be sensitive to the supply elasticity of masks. These considerations enable a structured means to view the demand implications of masking requirements and provide some food for policy thought.

Smoking patterns in Croatia and comparisons with European nations.

In recent years, tobacco use and its control have become increasingly the focus of attention of policy-makers and researchers due to ill health effects of smoking on both smokers and non-smokers. This paper contributes to a neglected research area by focusing on tobacco use and its regulation in Croatia. In particular, this study uses recent survey information to analyze the tobacco use patterns in Croatia and influence of tobacco campaigns and to compare these patterns to other EU candidate nations and the EU as a whole. Overall the results show that in some aspects of tobacco use and regulation Croatia fares better than other European countries, while in other aspects it is somewhat lagging. For instance, on the positive side, more Croat smokers and ex-smokers were exposed to anti-smoking campaigns than smokers in other countries. However, the effectiveness of such exposure is modest in terms of the percentage of smokers who wanted to quit smoking and the relatively low share of population which claims protection from second-hand smoke. Croatia also has to further strengthen the country's compliance with international tobacco control mandates in terms of enforcement of existing tobacco consumption restrictions. Besides shedding light on the effectiveness of tobacco control policies, the findings of this study have some implications for Croatia's accession to the E.U.

Advertising media and cigarette demand.

Using state-level panel data for the USA spanning three decades, this research estimates the demand for cigarettes. The main contribution lies in studying the effects of cigarette advertising disaggregated across five qualitatively different groups. Results show cigarette demand to be near unit elastic, the income effects to be generally insignificant and border price effects and habit effects to be significant. Regarding advertising effects, aggregate cigarette advertising has a negative effect on smoking. Important differences across advertising media emerge when cigarette advertising is disaggregated. The effects of public entertainment and Internet cigarette advertising are stronger than those of other media. Anti-smoking messages accompanying print cigarette advertising seem relatively more effective. Implications for smoking control policy are discussed.