The Covid-19 Pandemic A Public Choice View

This monograph evaluates public policy responses to the Covid-19 pandemic through a public choice lens. The book compares two prominent, albeit mutually exclusive, theories in social sciences—public interest theory and public choice theory—and explores how their predictions perform within the framework of the Covid-19 pandemic. The chapters present different pandemic policies alongside empirical data in order to draw conclusions about their efficacy, and, in turn, draw conclusions about the veracity of each theory. By the end of the volume, the reader will be able to draw their own conclusions about whether the pandemic policy responses served the public interest, as public interest theory suggests, or the personal interests of the politicians who implemented them, as public choice theory holds.

Introduction: Public Interest Explanations VS Public Choice Explanations.- Viral Mitigation: Weak Theoretical Underpinnings.- The World Stampeded: From Mass Hysteria to Prolonged Mass Hysteria.- Tradeoffs and Knock-on Effects.- Public Choice Theory: An Explanation of the Pandemic Policy Responses.- Epilogue: The Sound Scientific Grounds of Public Choice Theory.

Panagiotis Karadimas received his PhD in philosophy of science at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. His research interests include scientific explanation, theory of science, and philosophy of social sciences.