The Association between Press Coverage of the Economy and Fertility in the United Kingdom

Paolomaria Fabrizio , University of Florence
Ann M. Berrington, University of Southampton
Raffaele Guetto, University of Florence
Jason Hilton, University of Southampton
Daniele Vignoli, University of Florence

In today’s globalized world, media plays a crucial role in shaping perceptions and expectations about states of the economy, therefore potentially affecting fertility behaviors. This paper aims to analyse the newspaper coverage of economic narratives in the UK over the past 20 years and assess their impact on general fertility trends. We use data from the LexisNexis database to access the UK press and classify economic news articles with a sentiment through machine learning techniques, ultimately developing press-based indices. We employ an ARDL model to test the effects of our press-based indices on national fertility trends

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 Presented in Session 10. Contextual Factors for Fertility