Winners and Losers from COVID-19 : Global Evidence from Google Search
As COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc across the world, researchers are attempting to quantify the economic fallout from the pandemic as it continues to unfold. Estimating the economic impacts of a prevailing pandemic is fraught with uncertainties a...
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2020
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/821821591104924698/Winners-and-Losers-from-COVID-19-Global-Evidence-from-Google-Search http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33852 |
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okr-10986-338522022-09-20T00:10:46Z Winners and Losers from COVID-19 : Global Evidence from Google Search Abay, Kibrom A. Tafere, Kibrom Woldemichael, Andinet CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT GOOGLE SEARCH DATA ECONOMIC ACTIVITY DEMAND INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY CONSUMER DEMAND GOOGLE TRENDS ONLINE SEARCH As COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc across the world, researchers are attempting to quantify the economic fallout from the pandemic as it continues to unfold. Estimating the economic impacts of a prevailing pandemic is fraught with uncertainties about the epidemiology of the disease and the breadth of disruption of economic activities. This paper employs historical and near real-time Google search data to estimate the immediate impacts of COVID-19 on demand for selected services across 182 countries. The analysis exploits the temporal and spatial variations in the spread of the virus and finds that demand for services that require face-to-face interaction, such as hotels, restaurants and retail trade, has substantially contracted. In contrast, demand for services that can be performed remotely or provide solutions to the challenges of reduced personal interactions, such as information and communications technology (ICT), and deliveries, has increased significantly. In a span of three months, the pandemic has resulted in a 63 percent reduction in demand for hotels, while increasing demand for ICT by a comparable rate. The impacts appear to be driven by supply contractions, due to social distancing and lockdown measures, and demand shocks as consumers shelter in place, with the latter dominating for most services. The magnitude of the changes in demand varies considerably with government responses to the pandemic. 2020-06-04T14:43:54Z 2020-06-04T14:43:54Z 2020-06 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/821821591104924698/Winners-and-Losers-from-COVID-19-Global-Evidence-from-Google-Search http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33852 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9268 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
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Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
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World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English |
| topic |
CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT GOOGLE SEARCH DATA ECONOMIC ACTIVITY DEMAND INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY CONSUMER DEMAND GOOGLE TRENDS ONLINE SEARCH |
| spellingShingle |
CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT GOOGLE SEARCH DATA ECONOMIC ACTIVITY DEMAND INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY CONSUMER DEMAND GOOGLE TRENDS ONLINE SEARCH Abay, Kibrom A. Tafere, Kibrom Woldemichael, Andinet Winners and Losers from COVID-19 : Global Evidence from Google Search |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9268 |
| description |
As COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc
across the world, researchers are attempting to quantify the
economic fallout from the pandemic as it continues to
unfold. Estimating the economic impacts of a prevailing
pandemic is fraught with uncertainties about the
epidemiology of the disease and the breadth of disruption of
economic activities. This paper employs historical and near
real-time Google search data to estimate the immediate
impacts of COVID-19 on demand for selected services across
182 countries. The analysis exploits the temporal and
spatial variations in the spread of the virus and finds that
demand for services that require face-to-face interaction,
such as hotels, restaurants and retail trade, has
substantially contracted. In contrast, demand for services
that can be performed remotely or provide solutions to the
challenges of reduced personal interactions, such as
information and communications technology (ICT), and
deliveries, has increased significantly. In a span of three
months, the pandemic has resulted in a 63 percent reduction
in demand for hotels, while increasing demand for ICT by a
comparable rate. The impacts appear to be driven by supply
contractions, due to social distancing and lockdown
measures, and demand shocks as consumers shelter in place,
with the latter dominating for most services. The magnitude
of the changes in demand varies considerably with government
responses to the pandemic. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Abay, Kibrom A. Tafere, Kibrom Woldemichael, Andinet |
| author_facet |
Abay, Kibrom A. Tafere, Kibrom Woldemichael, Andinet |
| author_sort |
Abay, Kibrom A. |
| title |
Winners and Losers from COVID-19 : Global Evidence from Google Search |
| title_short |
Winners and Losers from COVID-19 : Global Evidence from Google Search |
| title_full |
Winners and Losers from COVID-19 : Global Evidence from Google Search |
| title_fullStr |
Winners and Losers from COVID-19 : Global Evidence from Google Search |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Winners and Losers from COVID-19 : Global Evidence from Google Search |
| title_sort |
winners and losers from covid-19 : global evidence from google search |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2020 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/821821591104924698/Winners-and-Losers-from-COVID-19-Global-Evidence-from-Google-Search http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33852 |
| _version_ |
1764479659563548672 |