Record Details

Replication Data For: Does Economic Policy Uncertainty Increase Information Search About Condoms on the Internet?

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

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Title Replication Data For: Does Economic Policy Uncertainty Increase Information Search About Condoms on the Internet?
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/DLNYQ1
 
Creator Olds, Christopher
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description This project evaluates whether change in the level of economic policy
uncertainty has implications on the search for information about condoms in the
United States. Economic policy uncertainty raises questions about the current and
prospective characteristics of government policy about the economy. The potentially
negative implications of economic policy uncertainty on the financial security and
well-being of citizens should encourage risk-averse decision-making. An increase in
economic policy uncertainty then should compel many members of the public to
consider the potential costs involved in experiencing unintended pregnancies and/or
sexually transmitted infections. As a result, the proposal of this project is that an
increase in economic policy uncertainty results in an increase in the search for information on the Internet about condoms. The empirical analyses conduct vector
autoregression and moving average representation time series analyses of monthly
information spanning between 2004 and 2013 about the economic policy uncertainty
index developed by Baker, Bloom & Davis (2013), and the volume of Internet search
interest reported by Google Trends about condoms. The results provide evidence
that prior change in economic policy uncertainty predicts the current search interest
level about condoms, such that higher economic policy uncertainty increases search
interest about condoms. While prior research has focused on the behaviors of business firms when exploring the consequences of economic policy uncertainty, the research findings seen here give an indication that economic policy uncertainty can also have a role in the decision-making process of the mass public regarding personal health choices.
 
Subject Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
Social Sciences
condoms, Internet search interest, health information search, macroeconomics, sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy, risk-aversion, United States, Google Trends
 
Contributor Olds, Christopher