Heterogeneous responses in Google Trends measures of well-being to the COVID-19 dynamic quarantines in Chile

We study how the Chilean population’s well-being responded to the strategy implemented by their health authorities, known as Dynamic Quarantine , to contain the spread of coronavirus in which municipalities periodically entered and exited lockdowns. This unique scheme, together with the population’s socioeconomic heterogeneity, facilitates the estimation of changes in this well-being as differentiated by socioeconomic status. Using Google Trends to compute measures of well-being, we find strong evidence that socioeconomic status induces heterogeneity in these changes; thus, neglecting this heterogeneity may lead to misleading prescriptions for the public policy that addresses the psychological effects of lockdowns.