Date of Completion

Spring 5-1-2020

Thesis Advisor(s)

Jorge Agüero

Honors Major

Economics

Disciplines

American Politics | Behavioral Economics | Econometrics | Political Economy

Abstract

For years, social scientists have studied the impact of presidential rhetoric on public opinion and consumer behavior. This paper adds to the literature on presidential rhetoric by investigating how presidential statements on social media change public behavior in a reaction to these statements. President Trump's immigration policy tweets are used to examine if there is a relationship between the president's statements and changes in behavior using and Google searches. I find no relationship between the instance of a President Trump’s tweet and changes in searching for related topics among both large immigrant populations and Trump supporters.

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