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WP/22/19
IMF Working Paper Research Department
E-commerce During Covid: Stylized Facts from 47 Economies
Joel Alcedo, Alberto Cavallo, Bricklin Dwyer, Prachi Mishra, and Antonio Spilimbergo*
Authorized for distribution by Antonio Spilimbergo
January 2022
IMF Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to encourage debate. The views expressed in IMF Working Papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management.
ABSTRACT:
We study e-commerce across 47 economies and 26 industries during the COVID-19 pandemic using aggregated and anonymized transaction-level data from Mastercard, scaled to represent total consumer spending. The share of online transactions in total consumption increased more in economies with higher pre-pandemic e-commerce shares, exacerbating the digital divide across economies. Overall, the latest data suggest that these spikes in online spending shares are dissipating at the aggregate level, though there is variation across industries. In particular, the share of online spending in professional services and recreation has fallen below its pre-pandemic trend, but we observe a longer-lasting shift to digital in retail and restaurants.
| JEL Classification Numbers: | O3, E00, F00 |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, Technological Change, consumption, digitalization; e-commerce |
| Author’s E-Mail Address: | aspilimbergo@imf.org; pmishra@imf.org; joel.alcedo@mastercard.com; acavallo@hbs.edu; bricklin.dwyer@mastercard.com |
| JEL Classification Numbers: | O3, E00, F00 |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, Technological Change, consumption, digitalization; e-commerce |
| Author’s E-Mail Address: | aspilimbergo@imf.org; pmishra@imf.org; joel.alcedo@mastercard.com; acavallo@hbs.edu; bricklin.dwyer@mastercard.com |
Alcedo and Dwyer are at Mastercard Economics Institute, email: Joel.Alcedo@mastercard.com, Bricklin.Dwyer@mastercard.com. Cavallo is at Harvard Business School, email: acavallo@hbs.edu. Mishra and Spilimbergo are with the Research Department at the International Monetary Fund, email: pmishra@imf.org and aspilimbergo@imf.org. We thank Swapnil Agarwal for excellent research support. All errors remain our own. The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF, its Management and Executive Board, or IMF policy.