Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/51705 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 5601
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
The internet has become an important data source for the Social Sciences because these data are available without lags, can be regarded as involuntary surveys and hence have no observer effect, can be geo-labeled, are available for countries across the globe and can be viewed in continuous time scales from the micro to the macro level. The paper uses internet search data to document how the great economic crisis has affected people's well-being and health studying the US, Germany and a cross section of the G8 countries. We investigate two types of searches which capture self-diagnosis and treatment respectively: those that contain the words symptoms and side effects. Significant spikes for both types of searches in all three areas (US, Germany and the G8) are found, which are coincident with the crisis and its contagion timeline. An array of due diligence checks are performed and a number of alternative hypotheses are excluded to confirm that the search spikes imply an increase in malaise.
Subjects: 
well-being
symptoms
side effects
Gallup
economic crisis
financial crisis
ill-being
JEL: 
C81
E32
I1
L86
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
723.25 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.