题目：Access Without Proximity: Urban Consumption in the Age of Food Delivery

时间：5月15日（周五）上午10:30-12:00

地点：承泽园246教室

摘要：Using comprehensive restaurant- and platform-level data from China, we exploit spatial and temporal variation in the expansion of food delivery services to estimate the causal effects of platform-based food delivery on local restaurant markets. We find that delivery induces a systematic reorganization of urban consumption: greater platform penetration leads to fewer restaurants, greater cuisine variety, and lower spatial concentration, with effects that are substantially larger in more populous cities. We interpret these patterns through a mechanism in which delivery reduces access costs and expands effective market size. Lower access costs intensify competition and increase the scale required for survival, leading to consolidation at the establishment level, while demand aggregation enables greater specialization and supports a wider range of cuisines. Together, these forces reshape the spatial and product structure of urban consumption. The findings imply that food delivery compresses the urban hierarchy of consumption amenities, expanding access in smaller markets while preserving scale advantages in larger cities —an insight with direct implications for platform regulation and urban policy.

主讲人介绍：Ying Chen is an Associate Professor at the School of Economics and the Paula and Gregory Chow Institute for Studies in Economics, Xiamen University. Her research interests lie in urban economics, with work published in the Journal of Urban Economics, the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, and others. She has received research funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Fujian Social Science Foundation, and was awarded the Alibaba Living Water Plan Outstanding Research Award. Prior to joining Xiamen University, she held research positions at the World Bank Group, the LSE Centre for Economic Performance, and the International Growth Centre.