Does Holding Elections during a Covid-19 Pandemic Put the Lives of Politicians at Risk?

34 Pages Posted: 9 Jul 2020

See all articles by Laurent Bach

Laurent Bach

ESSEC Business School - Finance Department; Swedish House of Finance

Arthur Guillouzouic

Institut des politiques publiques (PSE); Sciences Po - Department of Economics

Clément Malgouyres

Institut des politiques publiques (PSE)

Date Written: June 1, 2020

Abstract

We estimate the impact of French town hall elections held in mid-March 2020 on the mortality of 170,000 male candidates aged above 60. Their excess mortality during March and April was similar to the general population. We compare candidates in cities with two candidate lists to those in cities with only one list, as elections are more intense in contacts in the former group. We also use a regression discontinuity design and investigate mortality in 2020 depending on how candidates fared in the 2014 election. We cannot detect any causal effect of active participation in the 2020 elections on mortality.

Note: Funding: None to declare

Declaration of Interest: None to declare

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; French elections; individual-level data; regression discontinuity design

Suggested Citation

Bach, Laurent and Guillouzouic, Arthur and Malgouyres, Clément, Does Holding Elections during a Covid-19 Pandemic Put the Lives of Politicians at Risk? (June 1, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3635730 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3635730

Laurent Bach (Contact Author)

ESSEC Business School - Finance Department ( email )

Avenue Bernard Hirsch
BP 105 Cergy Cedex, 95021
France

Swedish House of Finance ( email )

Drottninggatan 98
111 60 Stockholm
Sweden

Arthur Guillouzouic

Institut des politiques publiques (PSE) ( email )

48 boulevard Jourdan
Paris, 75014
France

Sciences Po - Department of Economics ( email )

28, rue des Saints-Pères
Paris, Paris 75007
France

Clément Malgouyres

Institut des politiques publiques (PSE) ( email )

48 boulevard Jourdan
Paris, 75014
France

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