Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

1-2021

Keywords

COVID-19, public health, policy response, COVID testing, Sweden, Norway

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has served as a major challenge for political incumbents to design and implement a public policy response to track and contain the virus. This essay compares the public health strategies of Norway and Sweden to examine the failure of the non-coercive strategy of the Swedish government in the initial months of the pandemic, which led to higher case fatality and death rates per 100,000 in a population. The findings of this study represent the tragedy of the commons in health when institutions allow for individually rational behavior amidst the effort to contain and control infection.

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