Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/280879 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
SITE Working Paper No. 61
Publisher: 
Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE), Stockholm
Abstract: 
We study the effect of media coverage on individual behaviour during a public health crisis. For this purpose, we collect a unique dataset of 200,000 newspaper articles about the Covid-19 pandemic from Sweden - one of the few countries that did not impose mandatory lockdowns or curfews. We show that mentions of Covid-19 significantly lowered the number of visits to workplaces and retail and recreation areas, while increasing the duration of stays in residential locations. Using two different identification strategies, we show that these effects are causal. The impacts are largest when Covid-19 news stories are more locally relevant, more visible and more factual. We find larger behavioural effects for articles that reference crisis managers (as opposed to medical experts) and contain explicit public health advice. These results have wider implications for the design of public communications and the value of the local media.
Subjects: 
Covid-19
Mobility
Newspapers
Persuasion
Public health
JEL: 
D83
H12
I12
I18
J22
L82
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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