Is country leaders’ education relevant for policy making? The case of the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract This paper examines the impact of a country leader’s education on policy responses and policy outcomes during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Relying on a quasi-experimental event-study approach, I find that political leaders with a graduate education responded more stringently to the first nationally registered infection than political leaders with lower educational attainment. Subsequently, political leaders with a graduate education reported fewer Covid-19 infections and Covid-19 related deaths at the onset of the pandemic. The results suggest that the education of political leaders can explain policy differences, particularly in countries with low electoral accountability. The low level of accountability allowed political leaders with a graduate education to implement stringent, evidence-based policies to contain the pandemic without fear of electoral punishment.