Gatherings and Epidemics
Abstract
We estimate the causal effect of in-person mass gatherings on the spread of Covid-19 in the United States. Using text classification on over 700,000 local-newspaper articles from 2018-2021, we construct a county-week index of reported gatherings and combine it with Covid-19 case counts, mobility, and socio-economic covariates. To address endogeneity of gatherings, we employ a shift-share instrument that interacts counties' pre-Covid propensity to generate gatherings news with the timing of Black Lives Matter protests.
Kishen Shastry
Economist | PhD, University of Cambridge
Economist with a PhD from the University of Cambridge and Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, working on development economics, the economics of religion and informal institutions, and digital technologies and platforms.