Consumers’ Mobility, Expenditure and Online-Offline Substitution Response to COVID-19: Evidence from French Transaction Data

David Bounie, Youssouf Camara and John Galbraith

CIRANO Working Papers from CIRANO

Abstract: This paper investigates a number of general phenomena connected with consumer behaviour in response to a severe economic shock, using billions of French card transactions measured before and during the COVID-19 epidemic. We examine changes in consumer mobility, anticipatory behaviour in response to announced restrictions, and the contrasts between the responses of online and traditional point-of-sale (offline) consumption expenditures to the shock. We track hourly, daily and weekly responses as well as estimating an aggregate fixed-period impact effect via a difference in-difference estimator. The results, particularly at the sectoral level, suggest that recourse to the online shopping option diminished somewhat the overall impact of the shock on consumption expenditure, thereby increasing resiliency of the economy. Ce cahier de recherche étudie un certain nombre de phénomènes généraux liés au comportement des consommateurs en réponse à un choc économique sévère, en utilisant les milliards de transactions par carte mesurées avant et pendant l'épidémie de COVID-19. Nous examinons l'évolution de la mobilité des consommateurs, les comportements d'anticipation en réponse aux restrictions annoncées, et la différence entre les réponses au choc des dépenses de consommation en ligne et dans les points de vente traditionnels (hors ligne). Nous analysons également les réponses horaires, journalières et hebdomadaires, et estimons l’impact global à l’aide de la méthode des doubles différences. Les résultats, en particulier au niveau sectoriel, suggèrent que le recours à l’achat en ligne a en quelque sorte diminué l'impact global du choc sur les dépenses de consommation, augmentant ainsi la résilience de l'économie.

Keywords: COVID-19; Consumption Expenditure; Consumer Mobility; Online Commerce; Resiliency; Transaction Data; COVID-19; Dépenses de consommation; Mobilité des consommateurs; Commerce en ligne; Résilience; Données de transaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E21 E61 E62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-04-29
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mac and nep-pay
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (62)

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https://cirano.qc.ca/files/publications/2020s-28.pdf

Related works:
Working Paper: Consumers' Mobility, Expenditure and Online- Offline Substitution Response to COVID-19: Evidence from French Transaction Data (2020)
Working Paper: Consumers’ Mobility, Expenditure and Online-Offline Substitution Response to COVID-19: Evidence from French Transaction Data (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cir:cirwor:2020s-28

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