John M. Barrios and Yael Hochberg find that the search share for the identified terms are lower in US counties with a higher vote share for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election Political leanings may colour one’s risk perception of the covid-19 pandemic, suggests a new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper by John M.
Barrios and Yael Hochberg. The researchers use Google search-share of covid-related terms as a proxy for people’s risk perception of the pandemic in the US.
Their presumption is that the perceived risk is higher in locations that saw higher searches for covid-related terms such as coronavirus, Wuhan virus and unemployment, which denotes the economic risk.