Lockdown, Infection, and Mental Well-Being in China

This paper exploits data from Sina Weibo posts to study the effect of the Wuhan lockdown on mental well-being during the initial COVID-19 outbreak. By applying the difference-in-differences method to a city-level expressed happiness index generated by Weibo posts, we find that the announcement regarding human-to-human transmission significantly lowered mental well-being in Wuhan relative to Chinese cities outside Hubei province, and the subsequent Wuhan lockdown had protective effects during the first 12 days. The effects on mental well-being remained significant in the medium run until the Wuhan lockdown ended. However, our results also suggest that the protective effects of the Wuhan lockdown declined as the lockdown continued and the risk of infection became lower. Our findings are robust to the use of alternative control groups and sample periods, a different mental well-being measure, and the potential censorship of Weibo