Can the Social Network Hinder the Impact of COVID-19 on Economic Uncertainty? New Evidence from China

This study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on economic uncertainty and its spillover network based on social network analysis. The study constructs the inter-provincial Chinese economic uncertainty spillover network using a mixed frequency dataset and the provincial social network using microblog user data. Furthermore, the temporal exponential random graph model is used to analyze the impact of COVID-19 and social network during three periods. The results show that the COVID-19 pandemic significantly affects China’s provincial economic uncertainty and social network significantly hinders economic uncertainty spillover networks. The inhibitory effect of social networks on uncertainty spillover network has regional heterogeneity, which is more significant in provinces severely affected by the pandemic and strictly controlled.