IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cep/cepcvd/cepcovid-19-018.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Recovering from the first Covid-19 lockdown: Economic impacts of the UK's Eat Out to Help Out scheme

Author

Listed:
  • Nicolás González-Pampillón
  • Gonzalo Nunez-Chaim
  • Katharina Ziegler

Abstract

We evaluate some of the economic impacts of the UK's Eat Out to Help Out (EOTHO) scheme on the food service sector. EOTHO subsidised the cost of eating out, with a 50% discount Mondays to Wednesdays in August 2020. We exploit the spatial variation in take-up using a continuous difference-in-differences approach. We measure the effect on footfall using mobility data from Google and on employment using job posts from Indeed. Our estimates indicate that footfall in retail & recreation increased by 5%-6%, while job posts in the food preparation & service industry increased by 7%-14%. These effects are transitory, and we do not find evidence of spillover benefits to non-recreational activities or other sectors. Further research is needed to assess the cost-effectiveness of EOTHO and similar programmes for boosting aggregate demand and supporting economic recovery after COVID-19 lockdowns.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicolás González-Pampillón & Gonzalo Nunez-Chaim & Katharina Ziegler, 2021. "Recovering from the first Covid-19 lockdown: Economic impacts of the UK's Eat Out to Help Out scheme," CEP Covid-19 Analyses cepcovid-19-018, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:cepcvd:cepcovid-19-018
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/cepcovid-19-018.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alexander Bick & Adam Blandin & Karel Mertens, 2023. "Work from Home before and after the COVID-19 Outbreak," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 1-39, October.
    2. Scott R Baker & Robert A Farrokhnia & Steffen Meyer & Michaela Pagel & Constantine Yannelis & Jeffrey Pontiff, 0. "How Does Household Spending Respond to an Epidemic? Consumption during the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 10(4), pages 834-862.
    3. Thiemo Fetzer, 2022. "Subsidising the spread of COVID-19: Evidence from the UK’S Eat-Out-to-Help-Out Scheme," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(643), pages 1200-1217.
    4. Diana Farrell & Lindsay E. Relihan & Marvin W. Ward Jr. & Chris W. Wheat, 2020. "The early impact of Covid-19 on local commerce: changes in spend across neighborhoods and online," CEP Occasional Papers 50, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    5. Lukas Althoff & Fabian Eckert & Sharat Ganapati & Conor Walsh, 2020. "The City Paradox: Skilled Services and Remote Work," CESifo Working Paper Series 8734, CESifo.
    6. Edward L. Glaeser & Ginger Z. Jin & Benjamin T. Leyden & Michael Luca, 2021. "Learning from deregulation: The asymmetric impact of lockdown and reopening on risky behavior during COVID‐19," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 696-709, September.
    7. Nicholas Bloom & John Van Reenen, 2010. "Why Do Management Practices Differ across Firms and Countries?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(1), pages 203-224, Winter.
    8. Hansen, Stephen & Carvalho, Vasco & García, Juan Ramón & Ortiz, Alvaro & Rodrigo, Tomasa & Rodríguez Mora, José V & Ruiz, Pep, 2020. "Tracking the COVID-19 Crisis with High-Resolution Transaction Data," CEPR Discussion Papers 14642, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Coibion, Olivier & Gorodnichenko, Yuriy & Weber, Michael, 2020. "The Cost of the COVID-19 Crisis: Lockdowns, Macroeconomic Expectations, and Consumer Spending," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt4jn1x65h, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    10. James Heckman & Hidehiko Ichimura & Jeffrey Smith & Petra Todd, 1998. "Characterizing Selection Bias Using Experimental Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 66(5), pages 1017-1098, September.
    11. Daron Acemoglu & David H. Autor & David Lyle, 2004. "Women, War, and Wages: The Effect of Female Labor Supply on the Wage Structure at Midcentury," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(3), pages 497-551, June.
    12. Youssef Benzarti & Dorian Carloni, 2019. "Who Really Benefits from Consumption Tax Cuts? Evidence from a Large VAT Reform in France," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 38-63, February.
    13. Relihan, Lindsay & Ward, Marvin & Wheat, Chris W. & Farrell, Diana, 2020. "The early impact of COVID-19 on local commerce: changes in spend across neighborhoods and online," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 105060, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    14. Landais, Camille & Bounie, David & Camara, Youssouf & Fize, Etienne & Galbraith, John W. & Lavest, Chloe & Pazem, Tatiana & Savatier, Baptiste, 2020. "Consumption Dynamics in the COVID Crisis: Real Time Insights from French Transaction & Bank Data," CEPR Discussion Papers 15474, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Kosonen, Tuomas, 2015. "More and cheaper haircuts after VAT cut? On the efficiency and incidence of service sector consumption taxes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 87-100.
    16. Laliotis, Ioannis & Minos, Dimitrios, 2020. "Spreading the disease: The role of culture," SocArXiv z4ndc, Center for Open Science.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Solórzano Diego, 2023. "Grab a Bite? Prices in the food away from home industry during the COVID-19 pandemic," Working Papers 2023-18, Banco de México.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nicolas Gonzalez-Pampillon & Gonzalo Nunez-Chaim & Henry G. Overman, 2022. "The economic impacts of the UK's eat out to help out scheme," CEP Discussion Papers dp1865, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    2. Hakan Yilmazkuday, 2021. "Changes in Consumption in the Early COVID-19 Era: Zip-Code Level Evidence from the U.S," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-10, October.
    3. John Gathergood & Fabian Gunzinger & Benedict Guttman-Kenney & Edika Quispe-Torreblanca & Neil Stewart, 2020. "Levelling Down and the COVID-19 Lockdowns: Uneven Regional Recovery in UK Consumer Spending," Papers 2012.09336, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2020.
    4. Hodbod, Alexander & Hommes, Cars & Huber, Stefanie J. & Salle, Isabelle, 2021. "The COVID-19 consumption game-changer: Evidence from a large-scale multi-country survey," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    5. Thiemo Fetzer, 2022. "Subsidising the spread of COVID-19: Evidence from the UK’S Eat-Out-to-Help-Out Scheme," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(643), pages 1200-1217.
    6. Bruno P. Carvalho & Susana Peralta & João Pereira dos Santos, 2022. "Regional and sectorial impacts of the Covid‐19 crisis: Evidence from electronic payments," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(3), pages 757-798, June.
    7. Kubota, So & Onishi, Koichiro & Toyama, Yuta, 2021. "Consumption responses to COVID-19 payments: Evidence from a natural experiment and bank account data," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 1-17.
    8. Barrero, Jose Maria & Bloom, Nick & Davis, Steven J., 2020. "Why Working From Home Will Stick," SocArXiv wfdbe, Center for Open Science.
    9. Harju, Jarkko & Kosonen, Tuomas & Skans, Oskar Nordström, 2018. "Firm types, price-setting strategies, and consumption-tax incidence," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 48-72.
    10. Stefanie Huber, 2022. "SHE canÕt afford it and HE doesnÕt want it: The gender gap in the COVID-19 consumption response," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 22-029/II, Tinbergen Institute.
    11. Martin O'Connell & Áureo de Paula & Kate Smith, 2021. "Preparing for a pandemic: spending dynamics and panic buying during the COVID‐19 first wave," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(2), pages 249-264, June.
    12. Hakan Yilmazkuday, 2020. "COVID‐19 and unequal social distancing across demographic groups," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(6), pages 1235-1248, December.
    13. Hacıoğlu-Hoke, Sinem & Känzig, Diego R. & Surico, Paolo, 2021. "The distributional impact of the pandemic," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    14. Horvath, Akos & Kay, Benjamin & Wix, Carlo, 2023. "The COVID-19 shock and consumer credit: Evidence from credit card data," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    15. Jinwook Shin & Seonghoon Kim & Kanghyock Koh, 2020. "Economic Impact of Targeted Government Responses to COVID-19: Evidence from the First Large-scale Cluster in Seoul," Working Paper Series no138, Institute of Economic Research, Seoul National University.
    16. Davide Furceri & Mr. Jonathan David Ostry, 2021. "Initial Output Losses from the Covid-19 Pandemic: Robust Determinants," IMF Working Papers 2021/018, International Monetary Fund.
    17. Santiago E. Alvarez & Sarah M. Lein, 2020. "Tracking inflation on a daily basis," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 156(1), pages 1-13, December.
    18. Barbara Baarsma & Jesse Groenewegen, 2021. "COVID-19 and the Demand for Online Grocery Shopping: Empirical Evidence from the Netherlands," De Economist, Springer, vol. 169(4), pages 407-421, November.
    19. O’Connell, Martin & Smith, Kate & Stroud, Rebekah, 2022. "The dietary impact of the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    20. George Kapetanios & Nora Neuteboom & Feiko Ritsema & Alexia Ventouri, 2022. "How did consumers react to the COVID‐19 pandemic over time?," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 84(5), pages 961-993, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Consumption subsidy; COVID-19; difference-in-differences; footfall; job posts;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cep:cepcvd:cepcovid-19-018. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://cep.lse.ac.uk/_new/publications/covid-19-analyses/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.