Well-being through the Lens of the Internet

Yann Algan, Fabrice Murtin, Elizabeth Beasley (), Kazuhito Higa and Claudia Senik ()
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Elizabeth Beasley: CEPREMAP - Centre pour la recherche économique et ses applications - ECO ENS-PSL - Département d'économie de l'ENS-PSL - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres
Kazuhito Higa: Hitotsubashi University
Claudia Senik: PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: We build models to estimate well-being in the United States based on changes in the volume of internet searches for different words, obtained from the Google Trends website. The estimated well-being series are weighted combinations of word groups that are endogenously identified to fit the weekly subjective well-being measures collected by Gallup Analytics for the United States or the biannual measures for the 50 states. Our approach combines theoretical underpinnings and statistical analysis, and the model we construct successfully estimates the out-of-sample evolution of most subjective well-being measures at a one-year horizon. Our analysis suggests that internet search data can be a complement to traditional survey data to measure and analyze the well-being of a population at high frequency and local geographic levels. We highlight some factors that are important for well-being, as we find that internet searches associated with job search, civic participation, and healthy habits consistently predict well-being across several models, datasets and use cases during the period studied.

Date: 2019-01
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-02096551v1
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Published in PLoS ONE, 2019, 14 (1), pp.1 - 23. ⟨10.1371/journal.pone.0209562⟩

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Journal Article: Well-being through the lens of the internet (2019)
Working Paper: Well-being through the Lens of the Internet (2019)
Working Paper: Well-being through the Lens of the Internet (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:spmain:halshs-02096551

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0209562

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