The Virus of Fear: The Political Impact of Ebola in the United States
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
vol. 16,
no. 1, January 2024
(pp. 480-509)
Abstract
We study how public anxiety over the threat of a disease outbreak can affect voter behavior by looking at the Ebola scare that hit the United States in 2014. Exploiting timing and locations of the four cases diagnosed in the country, we show that heightened concern about Ebola led to a lower Democratic vote share and lower turnout, despite no evidence of a general anti-incumbent effect (including President Obama). Voters displayed increasingly conservative attitudes on immigration, but not on other ideologically charged issues. Our findings indicate that emotional reactions can have a strong electoral impact, mediated by issues plausibly associated with the specific triggering factor.Citation
Campante, Filipe, Emilio Depetris-Chauvin, and Ruben Durante. 2024. "The Virus of Fear: The Political Impact of Ebola in the United States." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 16 (1): 480-509. DOI: 10.1257/app.20220030Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
- D91 Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
- I12 Health Behavior
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
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