Consumer behavior and food prices during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Evidence from Chinese cities
研究发现中国消费者对疫情限制措施反应强烈，紧急状态声明使食品价格大幅上涨，尤其是耐储蔬菜，且封锁措施影响更持久，导致消费者福利损失，对贫困家庭影响更大。
Abstract We find that Chinese consumers responded strongly to government restrictions during the COVID‐19 crisis. Our event‐study framework shows that emergency declarations raised average food prices by as much as 7.8 standard deviations of the price change distribution, with a much larger effect on non‐perishable vegetable prices (e.g., 17.0 standard deviations for Chinese cabbage prices). The effects of lockdowns were smaller but longer‐lasting. These results suggest that consumers panic bought non‐perishables under emergency declarations while under lockdowns there was a sustained increase in demand for non‐perishables. Such consumer behavior likely caused sizable losses in consumer welfare, especially among poor households.