Working Paper: NBER ID: w16955
Authors: Daniel Bennett; Chunfang Chiang; Anup Malani
Abstract: When SARS struck Taiwan in the spring of 2003, many people feared that the disease would spread through the healthcare system. As a result, outpatient medical visits fell by over 30 percent in the course of a few weeks. This paper examines how both public information (SARS incidence reports) and private information (the behavior and opinions of peers) contributed to this public reaction. We identify social learning through a difference-in-difference strategy that compares long time community residents to recent arrivals, who are less socially connected. We find that people learned from both public and private sources during SARS. In a dynamic simulation based on the regressions, social learning substantially magnifes the response to SARS.
Keywords: SARS; social learning; public health; health care utilization; economic epidemiology
JEL Codes: D83; I1
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| public information (L39) | outpatient visits (I11) |
| social learning from peers (C92) | outpatient visits (I11) |
| social learning from peers (C92) | response to SARS risk (H12) |
| public information (L39) | response to SARS risk (H12) |
| peer visits (C92) | individual visits (Z38) |