Is mobility a good proxy for consumption?
利用英国地方交易面板数据，区分线上与线下消费，发现零售和休闲流动性可可靠代理线下支出，但对线上支出预测有限，对缺乏高频消费数据的国家有参考价值。
This paper investigates the relationship between mobility and consumer expenditure using a longitudinal dataset of local-level transactions in the United Kingdom. It distinguishes between online and in-store spending and employs fixed effects models covering the period from February 2020 to March 2022. The analysis finds that retail and recreational mobility consistently serve as reliable proxies for in-store spending, while there is limited evidence of a correlation between online spending and mobility. These findings suggest that mobility data can serve as a valuable proxy for consumer activity in countries lacking high-frequency consumption data.