The safest time to fly: pandemic response in the era of Fox News

We document a causal effect of the conservative Fox News Channel in the USA on physical distancing during COVID-19 pandemic. We measure county-level mobility covering all US states and District of Columbia produced by GPS pings to 15–17 million smartphones and zip-code-level mobility using Facebook...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of population economics 2021-07, Vol.34 (3), p.775-802
Main Authors: Ananyev, Maxim, Poyker, Michael, Tian, Yuan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Containment
COVID-19
Demography
Economics
Economics and Finance
Labor Economics
Mobility
News
Original Paper
Pandemics
Population Economics
Position (location)
Smartphones
Social Policy
Television news
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Summary:We document a causal effect of the conservative Fox News Channel in the USA on physical distancing during COVID-19 pandemic. We measure county-level mobility covering all US states and District of Columbia produced by GPS pings to 15–17 million smartphones and zip-code-level mobility using Facebook location data. Using the historical position of Fox News Channel in the cable lineup as the source of exogenous variation, we show that increased exposure to Fox News led to a smaller reduction in distance traveled and a smaller increase in the probability of staying home after the national emergency declaration in the USA. Our results show that slanted media can have a harmful effect on containment efforts during a pandemic by affecting people’s behavior.
ISSN:0933-1433
1432-1475
DOI:10.1007/s00148-021-00847-0