AEA Papers and Proceedings
ISSN 2574-0768 (Print) | ISSN 2574-0776 (Online)
The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Consumption: Learning from High-Frequency Transaction Data
AEA Papers and Proceedings
vol. 111,
May 2021
(pp. 307–11)
Abstract
We use daily transaction data in 214 cities to study the impact of COVID-19 on consumption after China's outbreak in late January 2020. Based on difference-in-difference estimation, daily offline consumption—via bank card and mobile Quick Response code transactions—fell by 32 percent, or 18.57 million renminbi (RMB) per city, during the 12-week period. The effect is prevalent across cities and is more pronounced in the dining-and-entertainment and travel categories. We infer that China's offline consumption decreased by over 1.22 trillion RMB, or 1.2 percent of China's 2019 GDP, in the 3-month postoutbreak period.Citation
Chen, Haiqiang, Wenlan Qian, and Qiang Wen. 2021. "The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Consumption: Learning from High-Frequency Transaction Data." AEA Papers and Proceedings, 111: 307–11. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20211003Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D12 Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
- O12 Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
- P36 Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions: Consumer Economics; Health; Education and Training: Welfare, Income, Wealth, and Poverty
- O11 Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
- P24 Socialist Systems and Transitional Economies: National Income, Product, and Expenditure; Money; Inflation
- E21 Macroeconomics: Consumption; Saving; Wealth