The COVID-19 outbreak and the municipal administration responses: resource munificence, social vulnerability, and the effectiveness of public actions

• Autor(a) principal: Ito, Nobuiuki Costa
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Pongeluppe, Leandro Simões
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por; eng
• Título da fonte: Revista de Administração Pública
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/article/view/81885
• topic: COVID-19; municipality; public action.; COVID-19; municipios; acción pública.; COVID-19; municípios; ação pública.

Facing the unprecedented situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, public officials at the municipality-level have no clear benchmarks or tested policies. In this situation, decision-making becomes a controversial process. This article provides insights for public agents in the Brazilian municipalities to deal with the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed the actions taken by city halls of the 52 Brazilian municipalities at least thirty days since the first confirmed case of COVID-19. We used a fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to identify the combinations of contextual factors and public actions that reduced COVID-19 transmission during the critical initial stage. The empirical results show three main paths to guide policy-making: (1) a plural collaboration path involving public and private sectors, operating in a fragile health system; (2) a public action path providing aid programs through intense collaboration inside public bureaucracy; and (3) a resource-based path relying on a well-structured health system.