Politics, pandemics, and support: the role of political actors in Dutch state aid during COVID-19

Abstract How do governments distribute resources across economic sectors during a crisis? And why some receive more than others? The recent COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the urgency of these questions. In this paper, we explore extent to which political economy perspective can help explain characteristics sector-specific state aid in Netherlands, traditionally corporatist country. While KLM, biggest player Dutch aviation sector, was promised loans worth €3.4 billion, horeca (hospitality) sector denied similar deal. Limited cross-case analysis eliminates purely accounts. We employed process-tracing and analyzed hundreds national media articles understand influence elected leaders, interest groups, experts. find that, against backdrop concerns, vote-seeking behavior by leaders as well strength organization groups influenced how much each could expect. Meanwhile, policy-seeking helps form that took. Our findings highlight need consider fiscal support terms, even crises, composition aid, not just its presence or amount.