Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Meal Gathering in China

Qing Chang, Yiheng Shu, Wuyang Hu, Xiaolei Li and Ping Qing ()
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Qing Chang: College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
Yiheng Shu: School of Business, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China
Wuyang Hu: Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
Xiaolei Li: College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
Ping Qing: College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 24, 1-12

Abstract: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese government adopted a series of preventative measures to control the spread of the virus. This paper studies the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated prevention methods on meal sharing in China. Meal gathering during multiple periods before and after the outbreak of COVID-19 is captured through two waves of online survey across China between March and June 2020, collecting a total of 1847 observations. We employ the difference-in-difference (DID) method to identify the causal effects of COVID-19 severity on meal sharing. The results show that relative to the same period in 2019, the frequency of meal gathering decreased sharply after the initial outbreak of the coronavirus in 2020 in both epicenters and non-epicenters. Furthermore, the impact of COVID-19 differed across different types of meal sharing. Our findings have implications for consumers, food service operators, as well as policymakers to understand the social and community impact of the pandemic and to adjust their coping strategies.

Keywords: COVID-19; meal gathering; food consumption; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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