The cost of racial animus on a black candidate: Evidence using Google search data

2014 ◽  
Vol 118 ◽  
pp. 26-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher H. Arehart ◽  
Michael Z. David ◽  
Vanja Dukic

AbstractThe Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention document a raw proxy for counts of pertussis cases in the U.S., and the Project Tycho (PT) database provides an improved source of these weekly data. These data are limited because of reporting delays, variation in state-level surveillance practices, and changes over time in diagnosis methods. We aim to assess whether Google Trends (GT) search data track pertussis incidence relative to PT data and if sociodemographic characteristics explain some variation in the accuracy of state-level models. GT and PT data were used to construct auto-correlation corrected linear models for pertussis incidence in 2004–2011 for the entire U.S. and each individual state. The national model resulted in a moderate correlation (adjusted R2 = 0.2369, p < 0.05), and state models tracked PT data for some but not all states. Sociodemographic variables explained approximately 30% of the variation in performance of individual state-level models. The significant correlation between GT models and public health data suggests that GT is a potentially useful pertussis surveillance tool. However, the variable accuracy of this tool by state suggests GT surveillance cannot be applied in a uniform manner across geographic sub-regions.


Author(s):  
Nicolò Cavalli

Using digital traces to investigate demographic behaviours, I leverage in this paper aggregated web search data to develop a Future Orientation Index for 200 countries and territories across the world. This index is expressed as the ratio of Google search volumes for ‘next year’ (e.g., 2021) to search volumes for ‘current year’ (e.g., 2020), adjusted for country-level internet penetration rates. I show that countries with lower levels of future orientation also have higher levels of fertility. Fertility rates decrease quickly as future orientation levels increase; but at the highest levels of future orientation, this correlation flattens out. Theoretically, I reconstruct the role that varying degrees of future orientation might play in fertility decisions by incorporating advances in behavioural economics into a traditional quantity-quality framework à la Becker.


2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Jesús Aragón-Ayala ◽  
Julissa Copa-Uscamayta ◽  
Luis Herrera ◽  
Frank Zela-Coila ◽  
Cender Udai Quispe-Juli

Infodemiology has been widely used to assess epidemics. In light of the recent pandemic, we use Google Search data to explore online interest about COVID-19 and related topics in 20 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. Data from Google Trends from December 12, 2019, to April 25, 2020, regarding COVID-19 and other related topics were retrieved and correlated with official data on COVID-19 cases and with national epidemiological indicators. The Latin American and Caribbean countries with the most interest for COVID-19 were Peru (100%) and Panama (98.39%). No correlation was found between this interest and national epidemiological indicators. The global and local response time were 20.2 ± 1.2 days and 16.7 ± 15 days, respectively. The duration of public attention was 64.8 ± 12.5 days. The most popular topics related to COVID-19 were: the country’s situation (100 ± 0) and coronavirus symptoms (36.82 ± 16.16). Most countries showed a strong or moderated (r = 0.72) significant correlation between searches related to COVID-19 and daily new cases. In addition, the highest significant lag correlation was found on day 13.35 ± 5.76 (r = 0.79). Interest shown by Latin American and Caribbean countries for COVID-19 was high. The degree of online interest in a country does not clearly reflect the magnitude of their epidemiological indicators. The response time and the lag correlation were greater than in European and Asian countries. Less interest was found for preventive measures. Strong correlation between searches for COVID-19 and daily new cases suggests a predictive utility.


Stroke ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vida Abedi ◽  
Marieme Mbaye ◽  
Georgios Tsivgoulis ◽  
Shailesh Male ◽  
Nitin Goyal ◽  
...  

Background &Purpose: In recent years, Internet became an increasingly important tool for accessing health information and is being used more frequently to promote public health. In this study, we used Google search data to explore information seeking behavior for transient ischemic attack (TIA). Methods: We selected two groups of keywords related to TIA -“Transient Ischemic Attack” and “Mini Stroke” - after examining several related search keywords. We obtained all available online search data performed in the United States from the Google search engine for a ten year span - January 2004 to December 2013. The monthly and daily search data for the selected keywords were analyzed - using a moving window strategy - to explore the trends, peaks and declining effects. Results: There were three significant concurrent peaks in the Google search data for the selected keywords. Each peak was directly associated with media coverage and news headlines related to the incident of TIA in a public figure. (Figure 1) Following each event, it took an average of two weeks for the search trend to return to its respective average value. The trend was steady for “Transient Ischemic Attack”; however, the search interest for the keyword “mini stroke” shows a steady increase. The overall search interest for the selected keywords was significantly higher in the southeastern United States. Conclusions: Our study shows that changes in online search behavior can be associated with media coverage of key events (in our case TIA) in public figures. These findings suggest that online health promotion campaigns might be more effective if increased promptly after similar media coverage.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu Zhong ◽  
Michael Raghib

Abstract Advances in Big Data make it possible to make short-term forecasts for market trends from previously unexplored sources. Trading strategies were recently developed by exploiting a link between the online search activity of certain terms semantically related to finance and market movements. Here we build on these earlier results by exploring a data-driven strategy which adaptively leverages the Google Correlate service and automatically chooses a new set of search terms for every trading decision. In a backtesting experiment run from 2008 to 2017 we obtained a 499% cumulative return which compares favourably with benchmark strategies. A crowdsourcing exercise reveals that the term selection process preferentially selects highly specific terms semantically related to finance (e.g. Wells Fargo Bank), which may capture the transient interests of investors, but at the cost of a shorter span of validity. The adaptive strategy quickly updates the set of search terms when a better combination is found, leading to more consistent predictability. We anticipate that this adaptive decision framework can be of value not only for financial applications, but also in other areas of computational social science, where linkages between facets of collective human behavior and online searches can be inferred from digital footprint data.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 473-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suneeta Krishnareddy ◽  
Kenneth Stier ◽  
Maya Recanati ◽  
Benjamin Lebwohl ◽  
Peter HR Green

Background: The only treatment for celiac disease (CD) is a gluten-free diet (GFD). However, there is interest among patients in a medical therapy to replace or help with a GFD. Therapies include gluten-degrading enzymes (glutenases). There are glutenases available marketed as dietary supplements that have not been demonstrated to digest the toxic epitopes of gluten. Methods: We investigated the contents, claims, and disclaimers of glutenase products and assessed patient interest using Google AdWords to obtain Google search frequencies. Results: Among 14 glutenase product, all contained proteases, eight contained X-prolyl exopeptidase dipeptidyl peptidase IV, two did not state the protease contents, and eight failed to specify the name or origin of all proteases. Eleven contained carbohydrases and lipases and three probiotics. One declared wheat and milk as allergens, two contained herbal products (type not stated) and one Carica papaya. Thirteen claimed to degrade immunogenic gluten fragments, four claimed to help alleviate gastrointestinal symptoms associated with eating gluten. Disclaimers included not being evaluated by the US Food and Drug Administration and products not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. On Google AdWords, the search frequency for the product names and the search terms was 3173 searches per month. Conclusions: The names of these products make implicit claims that appear to be supported by the claims on the labels and websites for which there is no scientific basis. Google search data suggest great interest and therefore possible use by patients with CD. There needs to be greater oversight of these ‘drugs’.


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