Public economics

Internal medicine

Pathology

Sociology

Business

Consumer Expenditure Survey

Disease

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Consumption (sociology)

Mathematics

Social science

Demographic economics

Infectious disease (medical specialty)

Advertising

Transaction data

Econometrics

Aggregate expenditure

Economics

Programming language

Geometry

Substitution (logic)

Shock (circulatory)

Difference in differences

Computer science

Monetary economics

Point (geometry)

Panel data

Medicine

Database transaction

SSRN Electronic Journal

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 (off-line) 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.

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