Costa Dora L, Kahn Matthew E
UCLA Department of Economics, 9272 Bunche Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1477 and NBER,
USC, Department of Economics, Los Angeles, CA 90089,
Economica. 2017 Jul;84(335):393-416. doi: 10.1111/ecca.12227. Epub 2017 Feb 27.
In the late 19th Century, cities in Western Europe and the United States suffered from high levels of infectious disease. Over a 40 year period, there was a dramatic decline in infectious disease deaths in cities. As such objective progress in urban quality of life took place, how did the media report this trend? At that time newspapers were the major source of information educating urban households about the risks they faced. By constructing a unique panel data base, we find that news reports were positively associated with government announced typhoid mortality counts and the size of this effect actually grew after the local governments made large investments in public water works to reduce typhoid rates. News coverage was more responsive to unexpected increases in death rates than to unexpected decreases in death rates.
19世纪后期，西欧和美国的城市饱受传染病肆虐之苦。在40年的时间里，城市中传染病死亡人数急剧下降。随着城市生活质量取得如此显著的进步，媒体是如何报道这一趋势的呢？当时，报纸是向城市家庭宣传其所面临风险的主要信息来源。通过构建一个独特的面板数据库，我们发现新闻报道与政府公布的伤寒死亡率呈正相关，而且在地方政府对公共供水工程进行大量投资以降低伤寒发病率之后，这种影响的规模实际上还扩大了。新闻报道对死亡率的意外上升比对死亡率的意外下降反应更强烈。
