Establishment level information as proxies for demand, congestion and social interaction

Michael Conlin, Stacy Dickert-Conlin and Katherine Harris-Lagoudakis

Economics Letters, 2024, vol. 241, issue C

Abstract: Using cell phone location data linked to store level transactions from a large grocery store chain, this paper finds that the relationship between the number of daily transactions and daily cell phone visits varies within store, across time. More interestingly, this relationship depends on the racial composition and income of the store's market. These results provide guidance, both in terms of estimation strategy and policy implications, to empirical researchers using establishment level cell phone and transaction information as a proxy for business activity, congestion, and social distancing. To demonstrates this policy relevance, we use within-store variation over time and estimate that the measured effect of COVID-19 policies on social distancing depends on whether cell phone location or transactions is used as the proxy.

Keywords: Cellphones; Transactions; Proxies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I18 I38 Q50 R50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:241:y:2024:i:c:s0165176524003173

DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2024.111833

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