Economic Analysis based on the Mobile Phone GPS Data and Monitoring Consumer Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Abstract
In order to understand what is happening in the underlying economy, it is useful to gain a picture of what people are doing. When people go out, they may do so in order to engage in some kind of economic activity. In this research, we measured the level of economic activity by gaining a macro picture of people's movements. Specifically, we used the location data (GPS data) of mobile phones owned by the customers of major Japanese mobile carrier au to measure changes in the movements of people in key urban areas, and to show the relationship between these changes and macroeconomic variables. Our results found a notable correlation between the number of visitors to city areas and GDP consumer spending and spending-related statistics. Furthermore, we found that the people's movements especially have a strong correlation with the consumption data of services. In addition, we found that there is an inverse correlation between online spending and the people's movements. In Japan, the spread of COVID-19 has had a marked impact on people's activity in 2020. This negative correlation indicates that a change in people's behavior while COVID-19 continues to spread, in the form of staying at home more, led to an increase in online shopping.
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