Facebook Page Topics and the Excess Demand for Used Cars

Abstract

The goal of this chapter is to investigate correlations between topics on Facebook Pages and excess demand for used cars after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. Because Chap. 4 revealed that there was excess demand for used cars, particularly Light Motor Vehicles (LR, LC, and LT), this chapter uses the excess demand for used cars as a proxy of socio-economic recovery activities. By revealing various types of correlations with topic frequencies and the excess demand for used cars, this chapter provides evidence to support the possiblity of using topic frequencies on Facebook Pages to detect the socio-economic recovery activities as reflected in the excess demand for used cars. This chapter is organized as follows: In Sect. 6.1, the author explains the data for this chapter’s analysis. In Sect. 6.2, the model is explained. In Sect. 6.3, the results are explained and Sect. 6.4 discuss the results. Lastly, in Sect. 6.5, the author concludes with a discussion of the findings.