To buy or not buy food online: The impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on the adoption of e-commerce in China

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 15; no. 8; p. e0237900
• Main Authors: Gao, Xuwen, Shi, Xinjie, Guo, Hongdong, Liu, Yehong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 20.08.2020; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adult; Betacoronavirus; Cellular telephones; China; China - epidemiology; Cities; Commerce - methods; Computer and Information Sciences; Consumer behavior; Consumer Behavior - economics; Consumers; Coronavirus Infections - epidemiology; Coronavirus Infections - virology; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Economic aspects; Electronic commerce; Epidemics; Female; Financial Support; Food; Food - economics; Food Safety; Food services; Forecasts and trends; Government; Health aspects; Health risks; Households; Humans; Internet; Male; Medicine and Health Sciences; Middle Aged; Online shopping; Pandemics; People and Places; Physical Sciences; Pneumonia, Viral - epidemiology; Pneumonia, Viral - virology; Research and Analysis Methods; Risk perception; SARS-CoV-2; Smartphone; Surveys and Questionnaires; Young Adult; Young adults; China; Cities

Drawing on a recent online survey combined with city-level data, this paper examines the impact of the COVID-19 on consumers' online food purchase behavior in the short term. To address the potential endogeneity issues, we adopt an instrumental variable (IV) strategy, using the distance from th...