MethodsX
A new time-series weekly and monthly COVID-19 data
--Manuscript Draft--
Manuscript Number: MEX-D-22-00375
Article Type: Method Article - Co-submission
Section/Category: Economics/Business
Keywords: Coronavirus; covid; Covid-19; Medical; Travel; Uncertainty; vaccine; Indices Abstract: In this paper, we developed two new weekly and monthly time series datasets using
the approach proposed by Narayan, Iyke and Sharma (2021). These datasets cover six different COVID-19 related indices, namely COVID index, medical index, vaccine index, travel index, uncertainty index, and aggregate COVID-19 sentiment index, and are directly constructed from leading global newspapers using a word search algorithm. Our new datasets complement existing datasets and allow researchers to examine the robustness of the current evidence on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The weekly indices cover the period from 12/31/2019 to 4/27/2021, while the monthly indices cover the period from December 2019 to April 2021.The data provides real-time public interest in the pandemic.
The data can be used to gauge changing public sentiments towards COVID-19.
The new indices can be used to assess robustness of COVID-19 related finance/economics research.
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Article Title: A new time-series weekly and monthly COVID-19 data
Authors: Paresh Kumar Narayan (Monash Business School, Monash University, Wellington Road, Victoria 3800, Melbourne Australia)
Bernard Njindan Iyke (Monash Business School, Monash University, Wellington Road, Victoria 3800, Melbourne Australia)
Susan Sunila Sharma (Deakin Business School, Deakin University, 70 Elgar Road, Burwood Highway, Burwood, Victoria 3125, Melbourne Australia)
Corresponding author email address: [email protected]
Keywords: Coronavirus; COVID; COVID-19; Medical; Travel; Uncertainty; Vaccine; Indices
Related research article
Narayan, P. K., Iyke, B. N., & Sharma, S. S. (2021). New Measures of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A New Time-Series Dataset. Asian Economics Letters, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.46557/001c.23491.
Abstract
In this paper, we developed two new weekly and monthly time series datasets using the approach proposed by Narayan, Iyke and Sharma (2021). These datasets cover six different COVID-19 related indices, namely COVID index, medical index, vaccine index, travel index, uncertainty index, and aggregate COVID-19 sentiment index, and are directly constructed from leading global newspapers using a word search algorithm.
Our new datasets complement existing datasets and allow researchers to examine the robustness of the current evidence on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The weekly indices cover the period from 12/31/2019 to 4/27/2021, while the monthly indices cover the period from December 2019 to April 2021.
The data provides real-time public interest in the pandemic.
The data can be used to gauge changing public sentiments towards COVID-19.
The new indices can be used to assess robustness of COVID-19 related finance/economics research.
Method article template Click here to access/download;Method article
template;monthly&weekly indices paper_v2_10July2022.docx Click here to view linked References
2 Graphical abstract
Old COVID-19
data
New COVID-19
data
Robust
findings
3 Specifications table
Subject area Economics and Finance
More specific subject area Health economics/finance.
Name of your method COVID-19 Indices;
Name and reference of original method
Narayan, P. K., Iyke, B. N., & Sharma, S. S. (2021). New Measures of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A New Time-Series Dataset. Asian Economics Letters, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.46557/001c.23491.
Resource availability
Data is included in this publication;
Results can be reproduced using any news search algorithm and software (e.g. R, Julia, and Python)
Method details
A. Data collection
Our data collection steps are the same as those employed in Narayan et al. (2021). We identified keywords associated with COVID-19 pandemic and created a dictionary of 327 words. This dictionary of words is informative and accommodative (see Panel A of Table 1 in Narayan et al., 2021). We sourced the news articles related to COVID-19 from 45 of the leading international newspapers (see Panel B of Table 1 in Narayan et al., 2021).
B. Index construction
We retrieved daily news articles published between December 31, 2019 and April 27, 2021 from each of the 45 newspapers.
1ProQuest archives these newspapers. The starting period of our data collection is consistent with the date of COVID-19 discovery, while the closing period is on the date we concluded the data collection.
We used the ProQuest TDM Python algorithm to obtain the frequency of appearance of each word in our dictionary in the daily news articles. We then sum all words related to COVID-19, medical, travel, vaccine, uncertainty, and aggregate COVID-19. The aggregate measure contains 327 words. To form the specific indices, we applied Equation (1) in Narayan et al. (2021). The corresponding indices are presented in figures and tables. For example, Figures 1 and 2 plot, respectively, the weekly and monthly indices. Tables 1 and 2 tabulate the data in those figures for ease of use. The weekly indices cover the period from 12/31/2019 to 4/27/2021 (see Figure 1 and Table 1), while the monthly indices cover the period from December 2019 to April 2021 (see Figure 2 and Table 2). The excel file Narayan_Iyke_Sharma_2021_New Dataset contains the data and details on the variables. The daily equivalent of the data can also be accessed via https://doi.org/10.46557/001c.23491 and https://a-e-l.scholasticahq.com/article/23491.
C. Conclusion
This paper presents two new datasets on six different news-based measures of the COVID-19 pandemic. These measures are COVID index, medical index, vaccine index, travel index, uncertainty index, and aggregate COVID-19 sentiment index and are constructed by extracting news articles on COVID-19 from leading global newspapers using a word search algorithm. Our datasets have multiple reuse potential. First, it can be applied to test multiple hypotheses and theories in economics and finance. Second, it can be extended.
1 Note that our sample period is longer than Narayan et al.’s (2021). They considered a sample period from December 31, 2019 and to January 6, 2021.
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Figure 1: Weekly dynamics of the indices
The figure shows the dynamics of the weekly indices. A_COVID Index is an aggregate measure that includes all 327 words as noted in Table 1 (Panel A) of Narayan, Iyke, and Sharma (2021). This is followed by the medical index, a travel index; an uncertainty index; a vaccine index; and the COVID index. Specific details on the words contained in each index can be found in Table 2 of Narayan, Iyke, and Sharma (2021). The index covers the period from 12/31/2019 to 4/27/2021.
0.00 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00 60.00 70.00 80.00 90.00
12/31/2019 1/14/2020 1/28/2020 2/11/2020 2/25/2020 3/10/2020 3/24/2020 4/07/2020 4/21/2020 5/05/2020 5/19/2020 6/02/2020 6/16/2020 6/30/2020 7/14/2020 7/28/2020 8/11/2020 8/25/2020 9/08/2020 9/22/2020 10/06/2020 10/20/2020 11/03/2020 11/17/2020 12/01/2020 12/15/2020 12/29/2020 1/12/2021 1/26/2021 2/09/2021 2/23/2021 3/09/2021 3/23/2021 4/06/2021 4/20/2021
A_COVID Index Medical Index Travel Index Uncertainty Index Vaccine Index COVID Index
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Table 1: Weekly indices
The table shows the weekly indices. A_COVID Index is an aggregate measure that includes all 327 words as noted in Table 1 (Panel A) of Narayan, Iyke, and Sharma (2021). This is followed by the medical index, a travel index; an uncertainty index; a vaccine index; and the COVID index. Specific details on the words contained in each index can be found in Table 2 of Narayan, Iyke, and Sharma (2021). The index covers the period from 12/31/2019 to 4/27/2021.
Date A_COVID Index Medical Index Travel Index Uncertainty Index Vaccine Index COVID Index
12/31/2019 22.00 21.73 24.22 31.14 14.11 21.40
1/07/2020 28.03 24.22 57.24 35.11 14.10 21.90
1/14/2020 27.75 25.50 34.69 39.79 14.21 21.97
1/21/2020 32.41 31.18 38.65 40.78 14.89 28.25
1/28/2020 36.40 32.77 47.63 45.95 16.09 32.39
2/04/2020 37.63 34.16 50.21 41.05 15.24 32.63
2/11/2020 36.74 33.61 36.13 42.31 14.95 31.90
2/18/2020 35.24 30.29 37.37 43.23 14.94 30.81
2/25/2020 40.00 36.39 31.94 51.30 15.49 38.49
3/03/2020 47.34 44.47 45.04 58.00 17.00 45.40
3/10/2020 62.44 55.78 58.46 72.70 17.04 62.37
3/17/2020 73.13 64.51 53.82 76.30 19.06 72.73
3/24/2020 78.01 71.55 45.48 76.89 17.71 75.68
3/31/2020 75.27 72.17 32.91 69.72 17.37 73.41
4/07/2020 70.70 74.15 24.06 66.99 18.94 70.07
4/14/2020 74.61 76.68 25.96 69.51 21.84 72.00
4/21/2020 70.72 68.34 23.83 72.24 22.37 67.35
4/28/2020 67.52 65.68 28.07 70.79 22.08 64.43
5/05/2020 68.79 63.07 34.00 75.46 20.65 62.76
5/12/2020 67.89 63.12 40.51 79.75 23.78 61.15
5/19/2020 63.23 56.94 47.60 76.06 22.83 57.42
5/26/2020 60.17 53.51 44.40 68.83 19.92 55.39
6/02/2020 57.97 50.27 31.34 64.71 20.74 53.28
6/09/2020 55.38 49.18 31.29 60.63 18.84 51.29
6/16/2020 55.23 48.50 29.44 62.48 18.60 51.15
6/23/2020 54.27 48.01 30.44 62.99 18.41 50.47
6/30/2020 53.93 48.63 29.81 60.82 19.28 49.24
7/07/2020 56.27 52.03 27.94 62.17 19.31 50.96
7/14/2020 57.28 53.69 29.12 63.85 24.58 51.22
7/21/2020 56.12 53.10 25.90 62.91 24.46 51.08
7/28/2020 55.95 52.01 28.63 66.56 22.25 51.80
8/04/2020 53.70 49.88 27.17 61.78 21.75 49.88
8/11/2020 51.91 48.04 24.60 57.47 25.33 48.61
8/18/2020 50.01 48.11 23.78 60.48 24.20 46.82
8/25/2020 50.62 47.80 24.39 59.50 24.19 46.58
9/01/2020 47.87 43.75 34.32 56.60 23.53 44.81
9/08/2020 50.73 47.48 27.95 61.38 25.86 46.17
9/15/2020 49.84 47.46 27.01 53.28 22.69 45.18
9/22/2020 51.95 46.69 21.88 58.66 24.96 46.26
9/29/2020 50.80 48.80 18.04 60.63 21.41 46.46
10/06/2020 51.25 49.85 15.74 57.25 21.34 46.64
10/13/2020 52.48 48.88 21.76 58.05 24.95 46.34
10/20/2020 47.18 44.29 16.25 51.82 24.67 43.79
10/27/2020 48.39 42.75 18.82 51.79 22.72 44.11
11/03/2020 46.68 41.32 15.21 53.54 24.08 41.64
11/10/2020 46.24 44.04 16.22 49.15 45.53 42.89
11/17/2020 48.79 44.81 19.43 53.68 42.34 44.05
11/24/2020 48.85 44.94 20.44 56.89 41.61 43.09
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12/01/2020 50.46 48.09 17.51 55.63 56.05 43.64
12/08/2020 49.34 48.61 18.24 52.60 60.62 42.47
12/15/2020 50.92 48.55 22.39 53.75 52.75 44.56
12/22/2020 37.12 37.16 25.51 34.03 39.06 39.99
12/29/2020 43.50 45.75 23.75 43.00 55.02 43.73
1/05/2021 47.63 45.70 24.65 46.38 49.84 43.20
1/12/2021 51.53 51.19 26.60 49.94 61.36 44.68
1/19/2021 50.77 50.28 23.20 51.80 56.84 43.65
1/26/2021 50.82 48.42 21.33 51.28 64.17 44.22
2/02/2021 48.93 46.61 18.12 46.74 59.17 41.72
2/09/2021 46.57 44.84 19.41 49.60 50.07 40.30
2/16/2021 47.52 44.94 20.54 48.62 53.46 40.43
2/23/2021 48.46 45.68 18.46 50.38 56.25 40.80
3/02/2021 49.34 48.19 15.83 47.04 57.15 40.09
3/09/2021 44.85 43.71 14.26 47.06 52.48 39.49
3/16/2021 47.69 44.22 16.10 52.65 57.88 40.72
3/23/2021 47.33 44.08 16.77 50.74 54.46 40.83
3/30/2021 43.78 42.06 15.98 49.75 49.62 40.19
4/06/2021 46.89 45.44 16.25 54.41 56.40 42.68
4/13/2021 46.35 44.86 17.11 51.18 52.16 42.51
4/20/2021 50.64 47.76 23.12 53.33 48.49 45.48
4/27/2021 45.22 43.84 17.32 44.49 40.16 42.72
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Figure 2: Monthly dynamics of the indices
The figure shows the dynamics of the monthly indices. A_COVID Index is an aggregate measure that includes all 327 words as noted in Table 1 (Panel A) of Narayan, Iyke, and Sharma (2021). This is followed by the medical index, a travel index; an uncertainty index; a vaccine index; and the COVID index. Specific details on the words contained in each index can be found in Table 2 of Narayan, Iyke, and Sharma (2021). The index covers the period from December 2019 to April 2021.
0.00 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00 60.00 70.00 80.00
A_COVID Index Medical Index Travel Index Uncertainty Index Vaccine Index COVID Index
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Table 2: Monthly indices
The table shows the monthly indices. A_COVID Index is an aggregate measure that includes all 327 words as noted in Table 1 (Panel A) of Narayan, Iyke, and Sharma (2021). This is followed by the medical index, a travel index; an uncertainty index; a vaccine index; and the COVID index. Specific details on the words contained in each index can be found in Table 2 of Narayan, Iyke, and Sharma (2021). The index covers the period from December 2019 to April 2021.
Date A_COVID Index Medical Index Travel Index Uncertainty Index Vaccine Index COVID Index
2019M12 26.60 26.87 17.82 31.95 16.39 26.28
2020M01 28.95 26.68 41.58 38.66 14.33 24.66
2020M02 37.22 33.32 39.43 44.07 15.15 33.15
2020M03 64.54 58.63 49.26 70.01 17.95 63.27
2020M04 71.88 71.96 25.98 69.43 20.54 69.64
2020M05 66.03 60.46 41.14 75.18 21.67 60.36
2020M06 55.64 48.97 30.30 62.83 19.37 51.42
2020M07 56.13 52.22 28.48 63.64 21.88 51.06
2020M08 51.60 48.44 25.08 59.83 23.92 47.98
2020M09 50.17 46.38 27.17 57.18 24.16 45.61
2020M10 49.89 47.03 17.56 56.22 22.98 45.48
2020M11 47.80 43.82 18.16 53.28 37.69 43.01
2020M12 46.73 45.46 21.87 48.13 51.89 42.96
2021M01 49.23 48.71 23.41 49.18 58.57 43.73
2021M02 47.96 45.65 19.20 48.97 54.96 40.87
2021M03 47.26 45.09 16.25 49.89 54.62 40.50
2021M04 46.88 44.98 17.90 51.10 50.90 42.86
Ethics statements
Our data was collected from ProQuest Database. We have ProQuest’s consent to publish this data. We did not collect data on human subjects and hence human consent is not applicable.
CRediT author statement
All three authors contributed equally to the construction of the data and to the writing of this article.
Acknowledgments
N/A
Declaration of interests
☒ The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
☐ The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:
Supplementary material and/or additional information See attachment.
References
Narayan, P. K., Iyke, B. N., & Sharma, S. S. (2021). New Measures of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A
New Time-Series Dataset. Asian Economics Letters, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.46557/001c.23491.
Graphical abstract
Old COVID- 19 data
New COVID- 19 data
Robust findings
Graphical Abstract
Dataset
