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.

Supply chain performance and economic growth: The impact of COVID-19 disruptions

Reliable supply chains are crucial to the productivity and economic growth of nations. Despite the recognition of its importance, especially brought to the forefront by the challenges of the coronavirus crises, formal research on the contribution of supply chain logistics is less forthcoming. This paper uses data on 130 nations to examine the relative effects of different aspects of supply chain logistics, including overall logistics performance, and the performance of the input and output dimensions of logistics, on economic growth. The results show that improvements in the supply chain logistics performance yield positive growth dividends. Further, the input and output dimensions of logistics performance have positive growth effects, with some quantitative differences. Significantly, the growth impact of logistics performance varies across nations with different growth rates. Implications for public policy and spillovers for COVID-19 initiatives are discussed.