Back to trend: COVID effects on E-commerce in 44 countries

Joel Alcedo, Alberto Cavallo, Prachi Mishra and Antonio Spilimbergo

Journal of Macroeconomics, 2025, vol. 85, issue C

Abstract: We study online spending shares in 44 economies and 26 industries during the COVID-19 pandemic, using online transaction data from Mastercard. The online shares of total credit card transactions surged during the pandemic during lockdowns, but since returned to pre-pandemic trends in most countries. The differences between countries are strongly correlated with the mobility and fiscal measures. There is little evidence of permanent structural changes in e-commerce spending patterns. Finally, we estimate that COVID-19-related restrictions on in-person spending imposed average welfare costs of 7 percent.

Keywords: COVID-19; Technological change; Consumption; Digitalization; E-commerce; Welfare assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E00 F00 O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jmacro:v:85:y:2025:i:c:s0164070425000199

DOI: 10.1016/j.jmacro.2025.103682

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