{"title":"Change from the COVID-19 Pandemic to a New Normal: Documenting Consumption Behavior of Two Years with Big Data","authors":"Yoko Konishi, Takashi Saito, Hajime Kanai, Naoya Igei, Junichi Mizumura, Kyoko Shiga, Keita Sueyasu, Ryosuke Hamaguchi","doi":"10.1162/asep_a_00876","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\n The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed our daily lives in terms of eating, learning, working, and leisure time. So far, Japan has experienced eight waves of widespread infection and three emergency declarations but has coped with the crisis without mandatory lockdowns, behavioral restrictions, and mandatory mask-wearing that were seen in other countries. The response has mainly been an encouragement of behavioral changes in our daily lives. In this paper, we observe through “consumption big data” the initial disruption, the adaptation period, and the change to a new normal. We use point of sale (POS) data from supermarkets, convenience stores, home centers, drugstores, and consumer electronics mass merchandisers, as well as data from household bookkeeping applications, for the two years from January 2020 to December 2021. The POS data was used to observe item-level sales trends, while the household bookkeeping application data was used to observe trends in service expenditures and the prevalence of cashless payments. This made it possible to comprehensively understand the changes in consumer behavior during the pandemic.","PeriodicalId":52020,"journal":{"name":"Asian Economic Papers","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Asian Economic Papers","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1162/asep_a_00876","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed our daily lives in terms of eating, learning, working, and leisure time. So far, Japan has experienced eight waves of widespread infection and three emergency declarations but has coped with the crisis without mandatory lockdowns, behavioral restrictions, and mandatory mask-wearing that were seen in other countries. The response has mainly been an encouragement of behavioral changes in our daily lives. In this paper, we observe through “consumption big data” the initial disruption, the adaptation period, and the change to a new normal. We use point of sale (POS) data from supermarkets, convenience stores, home centers, drugstores, and consumer electronics mass merchandisers, as well as data from household bookkeeping applications, for the two years from January 2020 to December 2021. The POS data was used to observe item-level sales trends, while the household bookkeeping application data was used to observe trends in service expenditures and the prevalence of cashless payments. This made it possible to comprehensively understand the changes in consumer behavior during the pandemic.
期刊介绍:
The journal Asian Economic Papers (AEP) is supported by several prominent institutions, including the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University in the United States. This shows that there is a strong emphasis on sustainable development within the journal's scope. Additionally, the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy in South Korea, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) in Malaysia, and the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia in Indonesia also sponsor AEP. The articles published in AEP focus on conducting thorough and rigorous analyses of significant economic issues pertaining to specific Asian economies or the broader Asian region. The aim is to gain a deeper understanding of these issues and provide innovative solutions. By offering creative solutions to economic challenges, AEP contributes to the discourse and policymaking that impact the Asian economies and region as a whole.