The economic impacts of the UK's eat out to help out scheme

Nicolas Gonzalez-Pampillon, Gonzalo Nunez-Chaim and Henry Overman

CEP Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: We evaluate the economic impacts of the UK's Eat Out to Help Out (EOTHO) scheme on the food service sector. EOTHO subsidised the cost of eating out, with a 50% discount Mondays to Wednesdays in August 2020. We exploit the spatial variation in take-up using a continuous difference-in-differences approach and an instrumental variables strategy. We measure the effect on footfall using mobility data from Google and on employment using job posts from Indeed. Our estimates indicate that a one standard deviation increase in exposure to the EOTHO scheme increased footfall in retail & recreation by 2%-5%, and job posts in the food preparation & service industry by 6%-8%. These effects are transitory, and we do not find evidence of large spillover benefits to non-recreational activities or other sectors.

Keywords: consumption subsidy; covid-19; instrumental variables; footfall; job posts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-07-28
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Related works:
Journal Article: The economic impacts of the UK's eat out to help out scheme (2024)
Working Paper: The economic impacts of the UK’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme (2024)
Working Paper: The economic impacts of the UK's Eat Out to Help Out scheme (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1865

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