Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Editorial: Individual Differences In Cognition And Affects In The Era Of Pandemic And Machine Learning, Andrea Vranic, Yang Jiang, Xiaopeng Zhao

Behavioral Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Annual Economic Report 2022, Michael W. Clark, James P. Ziliak, Simon Sheather

Kentucky Annual Economic Report

This report is one of the important ways that the Center for Business and Economic Research fulfills its mission to examine various aspects of Kentucky’s economy as directed by the Kentucky Revised Statutes (KRS 164.738). The analysis and data presented here cover a variety of topics that range from a discussion of Kentucky’s current economic climate to a broad presentation of factors affecting the economy.

The report covers numerous dimensions of Kentucky’s economy including the effects of COVID-19. As the pandemic approaches its third year, COVID-19 continues to dominate the economic narrative. Many aspects of the economy have improved substantially …

Recent Advances In Wearable Sensing Technologies, Alfredo J. Perez, Sherali Zeadally

Information Science Faculty Publications

Wearable sensing technologies are having a worldwide impact on the creation of novel business opportunities and application services that are benefiting the common citizen. By using these technologies, people have transformed the way they live, interact with each other and their surroundings, their daily routines, and how they monitor their health conditions. We review recent advances in the area of wearable sensing technologies, focusing on aspects such as sensor technologies, communication infrastructures, service infrastructures, security, and privacy. We also review the use of consumer wearables during the coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus …

Chance Elections, Social Distancing Restrictions, And Kentucky's Early Covid-19 Experience, Charles J. Courtemanche, Joseph Garuccio, Anh Le, Joshua C. Pinkston, Aaron Yelowitz

Economics Faculty Publications

Early in the pandemic, slowing the spread of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) relied on non-pharmaceutical interventions. All U.S. states adopted social-distancing restrictions in March and April of 2020, though policies varied both in timing and scope. Compared to states with Democratic governors, those with Republican governors often adopted measures for shorter durations and with greater resistance from their residents. In Kentucky, an extremely close gubernatorial election immediately prior to the discovery of SARS-CoV-2 replaced a Republican incumbent with a Democrat, despite Republicans easily winning all other statewide races. This chance election result offers a unique opportunity to examine the …

Chinese-Invested Smart City Development In Southeast Asia - How Resilient Are Urban Megaprojects In The Age Of Covid-19?, Yujia He, Angela Tritto

Diplomacy and International Commerce Reports

Smart cities are emerging as major engines for deploying intelligent systems to enhance urban development and contribute to the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG). In developing economies facing rapid urbanization and technological change, new cities are being built with smart technologies and ideals, complete with business districts and residential, retail, entertainment, medical, education facilities to entice businesses and talents to relocate. Governments tout the potential of such “greenfield” smart cities for innovation and sustainability. Yet such urban megaprojects are often extremely expensive, prompting governments to partner with private players such as property developers, investors, and tech firms to …

The Impact Of Contact Tracing On The Spread Of Covid-19: An Egocentric Agent-Based Model, Andrew Pilny, Lin Xiang, Corey Huber, Will Silberman, Sean Goatley-Soan

Communication Faculty Publications

At its core, contact tracing is a form of egocentric network analysis (ENA). One of the biggest obstacles for ENA is informant accuracy (i.e., amount of true contacts identified), which is even more prominent for interaction-based network ties because they often represent episodic relational events, rather than enduring relational states. This research examines the effect of informant accuracy on the spread of COVID-19 through an egocentric, agent-based model. Overall when the average person transmits COVID-19 to 1.62 other people (i.e., the R₀), they must be, on average, 75% accurate with naming their contacts. In higher transmission contexts (i.e., …

School Reopenings, Mobility, And Covid-19 Spread: Evidence From Texas, Charles J. Courtemanche, Anh Le, Aaron Yelowitz, Ron Zimmer

Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise Working Papers

This paper examines the effect of fall 2020 school reopenings in Texas on county-level COVID19 cases and fatalities. Previous evidence suggests that schools can be reopened safely if community spread is low and public health guidelines are followed. However, in Texas, reopenings often occurred alongside high community spread and at near capacity, likely making it difficult to meet social distancing recommendations. Using event-study models and hand-collected instruction modality and start dates for all school districts, we find robust evidence that reopening Texas schools gradually but substantially accelerated the community spread of COVID-19. Results from our preferred specification imply that school …

The Public’S Perceptions Of Government Officials’ Communication In The Wake Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Shaniece B. Bickham, Diane B. Francis

Communication Faculty Publications

Early news coverage in the US about the COVID-19 pandemic focused on information released from local, state and federal government officials. With an emphasis on US government at these levels, this study examined whether the public’s credibility perceptions and trust in government, along with message exposure, influenced their adherence to information from the government about (a) stay-at-home orders, (b) social distancing and (c) COVID-19 testing. Source credibility theory and situational crisis communication theory provided the theoretical framework for this study. Through the survey data analysis, we investigated communication preferences in the wake of the pandemic and whether credibility perceptions differed …

Kentucky's Economic Recovery, Ashli Watts, Michael W. Clark

Kentucky Economic Update

Highlights of this first release of “Kentucky Economic Update” include:

• Kentucky’s GDP bounced back during the 3rd quarter of 2020 but was still below pre-pandemic levels.
• While employment was still down 5.2% in December compared to a year ago, Kentucky has recovered 65% of jobs lost during initial months of the pandemic.
• As of December 2020, Kentucky’s unemployment rate stood at 6%, down from 16.6% in April 2020.
• Kentucky’s labor participation rate, which was 59.6% just before the pandemic dropped to 57.5% in December 2020.

Kentucky Annual Economic Report 2021, Michael W. Clark, James P. Ziliak, Simon Sheather

Kentucky Annual Economic Report

This report is one of the important ways that the Center for Business and Economic Research fulfills its mission to examine various aspects of Kentucky’s economy as directed by the Kentucky Revised Statutes (KRS 164.738). The analysis and data presented here cover a variety of topics that range from a discussion of Kentucky’s current economic climate to a broad presentation of factors affecting the economy.

The report covers numerous dimensions of Kentucky’s economy and COVID-19’s effects are evident across many of these dimensions. The pandemic brought the longest running economic expansion to an abrupt end. By April, Kentucky’s employment declined …

Impact Of The Coronavirus Pandemic On Housing, Bethany L. Paris

Issue Brief on Topics Affecting Kentucky’s Economy

Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Stay home if you are sick. We have all become familiar with the CDC guidelines on staying safe during this unprecedented time. But what if you are at risk of losing your home because you are unable to pay your rent or mortgage? This is the challenge that approximately 288,000 or 10% of Kentucky households have faced throughout the past year.

A Case Study In Revitalizing A State Library Association And Keeping It Vital During Covid, Rebecca J. Morgan, Tiffney A. Gipson, Lauren E. Robinson

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

The Kentucky Medical Library Association (KMLA) is an organization dedicated to building a networking community and providing resources to the health sciences and medical librarians of Kentucky. Medical and health science libraries within the state of Kentucky are encouraged to become annual members of KMLA. Organization membership exists on two levels: (1) individual and (2) institutional. Individual membership includes access to three KMLA business meetings a year, voting rights at business meetings, any conferences KMLA holds, an opportunity for continuing education (CE) reimbursement, and access to any CEs presented by KMLA. Institutional memberships are unique in that they provide interlibrary …

Gender In The Time Of Covid-19: Evaluating National Leadership And Covid-19 Fatalities, Leah C. Windsor, Gina Yannitell Reinhardt, Alistair J. Windsor, Robert Ostergard, Susan Allen, Courtney Burns, Jarod Giger, Reed Wood

Social Work Faculty Publications

In this paper we explore whether countries led by women have fared better during the COVID-19 pandemic than those led by men. Media and public health officials have lauded the perceived gender-related influence on policies and strategies for reducing the deleterious effects of the pandemic. We examine this proposition by analyzing COVID-19-related deaths globally across countries led by men and women. While we find some limited support for lower reported fatality rates in countries led by women, they are not statistically significant. Country cultural values offer more substantive explanation for COVID-19 outcomes. We offer several potential explanations for the pervasive …

Covid-19 And The Us Safety Net, Robert A. Moffitt, James P. Ziliak

Economics Faculty Publications

We examine trends in employment, earnings and incomes over the last two decades in the United States, and how the safety net has responded to changing fortunes, including the shutdown of the economy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The US safety net is a patchwork of different programmes providing in-kind as well as cash benefits, and it had many holes prior to the pandemic. In addition, few of the programmes are designed explicitly as automatic stabilisers. We show that the safety net response to employment losses in the COVID-19 pandemic largely consists only of increased support from unemployment insurance …

Some Regional Economic Perspectives On Covid-19 Impacts, Paul A. Coomes

Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise Working Papers

It has been about eight months since the Covid-19 pandemic began sweeping across America, causing the well-known health care emergency, and major economic and fiscal distortions. Presumably, we are in the last stages of the damage, as activity has picked up in most realms of daily life. However, recovery problems linger in many areas, including air travel, cruises, hotels, conventions, concerts, and schools. While not over, enough information has emerged to start documenting the regional economic impacts around Kentucky. This note examines the latest public data to study the apparent economic and fiscal damage related to Covid responses, public and …

Did Covid-19 Change Life Insurance Offerings?, Timothy F. Harris, Aaron Yelowitz, Charles J. Courtemanche

Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise Working Papers

The profitability of life insurance offerings is contingent on accurate projections and pricing of mortality risk. The COVID-19 pandemic created significant uncertainty, with dire mortality predictions from early forecasts resulting in widespread government intervention and greater individual precaution that reduced the projected death toll. We analyze how life insurance companies changed pricing and offerings in response to COVID-19 using monthly data on term life insurance policies from Compulife. We estimate event-study models that exploit well-established variation in the COVID-19 mortality rate based on age and underlying health status. Despite the increase in mortality risk and significant uncertainty, we find limited …

Measuring The Spread Of Covid-19 In Kentucky: Do We Have The Right Data?, Kenneth R. Troske, Paul A. Coomes

Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise Working Papers

We examine various measures of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths, with an emphasis on data for Kentucky. We find that: Data on the number of new reported cases of the disease obtained from convenience samples (as opposed to representative random samples) is an inaccurate measure of the spread of the disease in the State. Using CDC data and national studies, it appears that there were ten times the number of infections in March than reported for Kentucky at the time and by September the State is still capturing only one out of two people infected.

A better measure of new …

Misinformation More Likely To Use Non-Specific Authority References: Twitter Analysis Of Two Covid-19 Myths, Joseph Mcglynn, Maxim Baryshevtsev, Zane A. Dayton

Communication Graduate Research

This research examines the content, timing, and spread of COVID-19 misinformation and subsequent debunking efforts for two COVID-19 myths. COVID-19 misinformation tweets included more non-specific authority references (e.g., “Taiwanese experts”, “a doctor friend”), while debunking tweets included more specific and verifiable authority references (e.g., the CDC, the World Health Organization, Snopes). Findings illustrate a delayed debunking response to COVID-19 misinformation, as it took seven days for debunking tweets to match the quantity of misinformation tweets. The use of non-specific authority references in tweets was associated with decreased tweet engagement, suggesting the importance of citing specific sources when refuting health misinformation.

Racial And Ethnic Disparities In Covid-19: Evidence From Six Large Cities, Joseph Benitez, Charles J. Courtemanche, Aaron Yelowitz

Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise Working Papers

As of June 2020, the coronavirus pandemic has led to more than 2.3 million confirmed infections and 121 thousand fatalities in the United States, with starkly different incidence by race and ethnicity. Our study examines racial and ethnic disparities in confirmed COVID-19 cases across six diverse cities – Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, New York City, San Diego, and St. Louis – at the ZIP code level (covering 436 “neighborhoods” with a population of 17.7 million). Our analysis links these outcomes to six separate data sources to control for demographics; housing; socioeconomic status; occupation; transportation modes; health care access; long-run opportunity, as …

Will "Social Distancing" Lead To Future "Research Distancing": A Reflection On Covid-19 Impacts On Alzheimer's Disease Research, Shoshana H. Bardach, Allison K. Gibson, Elizabeth K. Rhodus, Gregory A. Jicha

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) has dramatically altered everyday life, including the field of Alzheimer's disease (AD) research. This perspective article explores some of the ways in which COVID-19 has already impacted the field, anticipates some of the long-lasting effects, and explores strategies for addressing current and future needs. Areas of impact include study integrity, regulatory and industry issues, and participant engagement. Proposed strategies for addressing these challenges include analytic methods to deal with large degrees of missing data and development of patient-centered, user-friendly, remote data collection tools and assessments. We also highlight the importance of maintaining participant well-being as a …