ArticleFiscal studies2021
Preparing for a pandemic: spending dynamics and panic buying during the COVID-19 first wave.
Article in Fiscal studies, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Environmental impact of increased soap consumption during COVID-19 pandemic: Biodegradable soap production and sustainable packaging.The Science of the total environment · 2021Pooled it
- The portrayal of panic-buying and stockpiling in English newspapers during Covid, a mixed-method content analysis.PloS one · 2025Article
- Article
- Review on Panic Buying Behavior during Pandemics: Influencing Factors, Stockpiling, and Intervention Strategies.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Article
- The impact of paid social Q&A on panic buying and digital hoarding at the stage of coexistence with COVID-19: The moderating role of sensitivity to pain of payment.International journal of disaster risk reduction : IJDRR · 2023Article
- Is it time to stock up? Understanding panic buying during the COVID-19 pandemic.Australian journal of psychology · 2023Article
- Fake news on Facebook and their impact on supply chain disruption during COVID-19.Annals of operations research · 2022Article
- Association between Dietary Habits, Food Attitudes, and Food Security Status of US Adults since March 2020: A Cross-Sectional Online Study.Nutrients · 2022Article
- The dietary impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.Journal of health economics · 2022Article
- Socioeconomic risks of food insecurity during the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK: findings from the Understanding Society Covid Survey.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Purchases of Fruit and Vegetables for at Home Consumption During COVID-19 in the UK: Trends and Determinants.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Article
- The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Mass Market Retailing of Wine in Italy.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Just Love Me, Feed Me, Never Leave Me: Understanding Pet Food Anxiety, Feeding and Shopping Behavior of US Pet Owners in Covidian Times.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Article
- Income gradient of pharmaceutical panic buying at the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.Health economics · 2021Article
- Preparing for a pandemic: spending dynamics and panic buying during the COVID-19 first wave.Fiscal studies · 2021Article
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- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In times of heightened uncertainty, consumers face incentives to build up precautionary stocks of essential supplies. We study consumer spending dynamics during one such time, the first infection wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, using household scanner data covering fast-moving consumer goods in the United Kingdom. We document large increases in demand for storable products, such as food staples and household supplies, in the days before lockdown. Households in all socio-economic groups exhibit unusually high demand pre-lockdown, but there is a clear gradient, with the largest demand spikes for wealthier households. Although stories of people purchasing extreme amounts received a lot of attention, higher aggregate demand was mainly driven by more households than usual choosing to buy storable products, with only small increases in average quantities bought on a given trip. Temporary limits on the number of units per transaction, introduced following the demand spike, are therefore unlikely to lead to the avoidance of stock-outs.
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Registered trials
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