Willingness to Travel with Endogenous Distance: Evidence from the Changing Retail Landscape
| 主讲人 |
Yue Cao |
简介 |
<p>Economists use consumers distance from services to identify demand, treating distance as exogenous despite suppliers strategically choosing locations. We develop novel instruments addressing this endogeneity using the spatial distribution of consumer demographics. Our preferred instruments use the income composition of concentric discs centered on the Central Business District. Applying them to smartphone geolocation data across 18 metropolitan areas, we estimate income-specific preferences for general merchandise chains. Accounting for endogeneity substantially alters willingness-to-travel and welfare estimates. Contrary to retail apocalypse narratives, consumer surplus per trip remained stable from 2010 to 2019; ignoring endogeneity falsely implies substantial welfare losses for lower-income households. </p> |
| 时间 |
2026-05-21 (Thursday) 16:40-18:00 |
地点 |
Room N302, Economics Building |
| 讲座语言 |
English |
主办单位 |
厦门大学经济学院、王亚南经济研究院、邹至庄经济研究院 |
| 承办单位 |
厦门大学经济学院、王亚南经济研究院、邹至庄经济研究院 |
类型 |
系列讲座 |
| 联系人信息 |
林老师，电话2180723，邮箱yurenlin@xmu.edu.cn |
主持人 |
Ying Chen |
| 专题网站 |
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专题 |
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| 主讲人简介 |
<p>Yue Cao is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the School of Management and Economics, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. Cao’s areas of specialization are industrial organization and applied microeconomics. Her recent work centers on empirical analyses of firms' differentiation strategies under competition, with a particular focus on retail sectors. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University and her B.S. in economics and mathematics from the University of Michigan. </p> |
期数 |
高级经济学系列讲座2026年春季学期第七讲（总502讲） |
