The Food Economics and Management team advances research on food system resilience during the pandemic

Recently, the research results of the food economics and management team of Huazhong Agricultural University were published in the academic journal Global Food Security in the field of food safety with the title of "How online food delivery platforms contributed to the resilience of the urban food system in China during the COVID-19 pandemic".
The study explores how online food delivery platforms have improved food system resilience
during the coronavirus pandemic in China.

The sudden outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and the corresponding measures to prevent it have posed enormous challenges
to the global food supply system.
During the lockdown policy, the vast majority of restaurants in China were temporarily suspended, but some restaurants still chose to switch traditional offline catering services to takeaway and online delivery, which to some extent met the food needs
of residents during the epidemic.
In the face of external shocks such as the pandemic, efficient online takeaway food delivery platforms have strengthened the resilience
of food system supply by improving food availability.

Based on daily high-frequency trading data from Alibaba's Ele.
me platform, the study used Staggered DID and Event Study to estimate the impact
of lockdown and unblocking policies on the performance of online delivery platforms and restaurants during the pandemic.
Research shows that some restaurants continued to operate and offer online food delivery
during the city's lockdown.
After the city was lifted, the number of restaurants operating on the platform and the number of corresponding delivery services rebounded and further increased
over time.
The results of the incident research method show that the adjustment path of the online food delivery business after the lockdown is different
from the adjustment path after the lockdown.
The results of the heterogeneity analysis also showed differences in the impact of lockdowns and unlockdown measures during the pandemic on different types of restaurants/dishes
.
The study also explored the possible impact of lockdowns on online food delivery, and confirmed the robustness of the main conclusions through a series of robustness and placebo tests
.

Taking online takeaway delivery platforms as an example, the study provides for the first time micro-evidence on the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic on takeaway consumption, broadens the research on the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic on food consumption, and also provides a policy reference
for coping with external shocks in the food system.
The study demonstrates the positive contribution of online food delivery platforms to the resilience of urban food systems in response to unexpected shocks, and from a global perspective, has guiding policy design to ensure global food supply and help cities cope with unexpected
shocks.

Professor Min Shi of the School of Economics and Management is the corresponding author of the paper, and Zhao Fangxiao, a 2018 undergraduate graduate of the School of Economics and Management, is the second author of the paper, and co-authored the paper
with Professor Wang Xiaobing, Professor Huang Jikun of Peking University, Professor Tian Xu and Professor Fan Shenggen of the Institute of Global Food Economics and Policy (AGFEP) of China Agricultural University, and Professor Stephan von Cramon-Taubadel of the University of Göttingen.

【English Abstract】

　　We use high-frequency data to quantify the nature and performance of online food delivery platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic in urban China, and to estimate the short- and long-term effects of lockdown and reopening measures.
A staggered difference-in-differences （DID） estimation strategy and event study approach are used to identify the effects of lockdown and reopening measures on the performance of online food delivery platforms and restaurants.
The results indicate that some restaurants continued to operate and offer online food delivery while lockdowns were in effect.
Both the number of operating restaurants and their online food delivery services rebounded and experienced further growth after lockdowns were lifted.
The adjustment path of the online food delivery business following the implementation of lockdowns differed from the adjustment path following the lifting of lockdowns.
The lockdown and reopening measures did not affect all types of restaurant/cuisine equally.
We also examine possible impact mechanisms of lockdown measures on online food delivery and restaurants, and conduct robustness checks to confirm the stability of the main findings.
This study contributes to the existing literature by confirming the positive contribution of online food delivery to the resilience of urban food systems in response to unexpected external shocks.
Our results have implications for the design of policies to guarantee food supply and help urban food systems adapt to unexpected shocks.

Paper link: