Do political conflicts influence daily consumption choices? Evidence from US-China relations
利用2018-2019年中美关系波动，结合手机定位数据，发现双边关系恶化时美国消费者减少去中餐馆和其他外国餐馆，更多选择美式餐馆，且该效应受年龄、种族和文化开放度影响。
Does political conflict with another country influence domestic consumers' daily consumption choices? We exploit the volatile US-China relations in 2018 and 2019 to analyze whether US consumers reduce their visits to Chinese restaurants when bilateral relations deteriorate. We measure the degree of political conflict through negativity in media reports and rely on smartphone location data to measure daily visits to over 190,000 US restaurants. A deterioration in US-China relations induces a significant decline in visits not only to Chinese but also to other foreign ethnic restaurants, while visits to typical American restaurants increase. We identify consumers' age, race, and cultural openness to moderate the strength of this ethnocentric effect.