  The initial period of vaccination shows strong heterogeneity between
countries' vaccinations rollout, both in the terms of the start of the
vaccination process and in the dynamics of the number of people that are
vaccinated. A predominant thesis in the ongoing debate on the drivers of this
observed heterogeneity is that a key determinant of the swift and extensive
vaccine rollout is state capacity. Here, we utilize two measures that quantify
different aspects of the state capacity: i) the external capacity (measured
through the soft power and the economic power of the country) and ii) the
internal capacity (measured via the country's government effectiveness) and
investigate their relationship with the coronavirus vaccination outcome in the
initial period (up to 30th January 2021). By using data on 189 countries and a
two-step Heckman approach, we find that the economic power of the country and
its soft power are robust determinants of whether a country has started with
the vaccination process. In addition, the government effectiveness is a key
factor that determines vaccine roll-out. Altogether, our findings are in line
with the hypothesis that state capacity determines the observed heterogeneity
between countries in the initial period of COVID-19 vaccines rollout.
