The nexus between unemployment and Covid-19 vaccine in the U.S. Evidence from Google trends

Abstract

The current study explores how the anticipation of the Covid-19 vaccines has interacted with uncertainty and unemployment in the U.S during the period 3/7/2020 - 11/21/2020. It is estimated that Google Trends data for the topic of unemployment benefits can be a consistent proxy for insurance claims, while divergences in their movement can be attributed to fear and uncertainty. These divergences appear to be mitigated by the development of Covid-19 vaccines through the reduction of uncertainty. Thus, the relation between searches for unemployment and the Covid-19 vaccines has been proven that it is strong. Furthermore, when uncertainty is reduced, Google Trends and conventional data can be determined simultaneously.