Christopher Roth

Coronavirus Perceptions and Economic Anxiety

There is a risk that economic anxiety over the coronavirus crisis will fuel a long-term economic downturn. Christopher Roth, together with Thiemo Fetzer, Lukas Hensel, Johannes Hermle, use Google search activity and individual survey data to document a rapid increase in economic anxiety in the US in response to the initial global spreading of the virus. Survey respondents tended to overestimate the mortality and contagiousness of COVID-19, but underestimated the non-linear nature of how infectious diseases spread. This suggests that information and public education may play a central role in containment and in managing the negative economic impact of increased economic anxiety.

Chris Roth’s fields of specialization are economics & psychology, subjective beliefs, applied microeconometrics and political economy. He is especially interested in the role of subjective beliefs in shaping economic and political behavior. His work has examined a variety of topics, such as attitudes towards immigration, beliefs about racial discrimination, experimenter demand effects, the formation of macroeconomic expectations and the determinants of political engagement. Methodologically, his work relies on online experiments, natural field experiments and laboratory experiments. The key focus of his research agenda is concerned with the measurement and the experimental manipulation of beliefs applied to questions in labor economics, macroeconomics and political economy.

While visiting the ifo Institute, Chris Roth will collaborate with Andreas Peichl and Sebastian Link to study expectation formation among firms. In particular they will study the relative importance of information frictions among firms and consumers based on experiments with firms and consumers.

Mr. Roth has published in the American Economic Review, the Journal of Public Economics, and the Review of Economics and Statistics among others. In 2019 he received the CESifo Distinguished Affiliate Award in Employment and Social Protection for his paper (with Ingar Haaland) on “Beliefs about Racial Discrimination and Support for Pro-black Policies”.

Christopher Roth is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick. He is an Affiliate Member of the CESifo Research Network, a Research Affiliate of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), a Research Affiliate of the Institute on Behavior and Inequality (briq), Bonn and a Research Associate of CAGE Warwick. His doctorate in Economics (DPhil.) as well as his master’s degree (MPhil.) are from the University of Oxford. He was awarded a BSc. in Psychology from the University of Hagen as well as a BSc. in Economics from the University of Warwick.