Articulista
Alexandre Gori Maia
Especialista em econometria aplicada e desenvolvimento econômico. Sua pesquisa se concentra na avaliação de estratégias de desenvolvimento econômico que tragam simultaneamente sustentabilidade social e ambiental, em temas relacionados à economia agrícola e ambiental, demografia econômica, economia do trabalho e social. Possui doutorado em Economia Aplicada pela Universidade de Campinas (UNICAMP) em 2007, mestrado em Desenvolvimento Econômico pela UNICAMP em 2003 e bacharel em Estatística pela UNICAMP em 1996.
Can the Content of Social Networks Explain Epidemic Outbreaks?
People share and seek information online that reflects a variety of social phenomena, including concerns about health conditions. We analyze how the contents of social networks provide real-time information to monitor and anticipate policies aimed at controlling or mitigating public health outbreaks. In November 2020, we collected tweets on the COVID-19 pandemic with content ranging from safety measures, vaccination, health, to politics. We then tested different specifications of spatial econometrics models to relate the frequency of selected keywords with administrative data on COVID-19 cases and deaths. Our results highlight how mentions of selected keywords can significantly explain future COVID-19 cases and deaths in one locality. We discuss two main mechanisms potentially explaining the links we find between Twitter contents and COVID-19 diffusion: risk perception and health behavior. (AU)