Relatively more people have died from coronavirus in countries led by populist governments than in countries with more moderate governments.

This is the conclusion of a study by researchers from several countries, in which the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) and the Oslo Center for Global Health are involved, among others.

"The so-called excess mortality - i.e. the number of deaths above the value that would have been expected even without the pandemic - is a good 8 percent in non-populist countries and almost 18 percent in populist countries," the authors summarize.

With 100 deaths otherwise, the corona pandemic causes 8 additional deaths in non-populist countries and 18 additional deaths in populist countries.

Johannes Pennekamp

Responsible editor for economic reporting, responsible for "The Lounge".

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In the study, which has just been published in the "Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy", the authors examined 42 industrialized and emerging countries.

They classified eleven governments as populist, citing previous research – including Brazil, India, Hungary, but also Great Britain and the United States under Donald Trump.

The evaluation of so-called mobility data, which is collected by Google, for example, showed that people in these countries traveled more during the pandemic and consequently had more contact with each other.

This in turn led to higher infection and death rates.

But why were people in these countries traveling more?

The scientists give two reasons.

On the one hand, the populist governments have adopted less strict lockdown measures, which is made clear by the relevant databases.

Citing the fast-growing literature on populism, the researchers write that populist governments tend to focus on simple answers and short-term solutions.

Governments are "less inclined to take far-reaching and targeted measures to contain the spread of the virus," they conclude.

On the other hand, populist governments often stir up an anti-scientific mood, also because they are fundamentally critical of supposed elites.

Such a mood tempts people to behave carelessly and not to reduce contacts.

"The spread of misinformation and the downplaying of the pandemic are closely related to the increase in COVID-19 mortality," the researchers conclude.