Using order-level data from Uber Technologies, we study how the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing shutdown of businesses in the United States in 2020 affected small business restaurant supply and demand on the Uber Eats platform. We find evidence that small restaurants experience significant increases in activity on the platform following the closure of the dine-in channel. We document how locality- and restaurant-specific characteristics moderate the size of the increase in activity through the digital channel and explain how these increases may be due to both demand- and supply-side shock. We observe an increase in the intensity of competitive effects following the economic shock and show that growth in the number of providers on a platform induces both market expansion and heightened inter-provider competition. Higher platform activity in response to the shock does not only have short-run implications: restaurants with larger demand shocks had a higher on-platform survival rate one year after the lockdown, suggesting that the platform channel contributes towards long-run resilience following a crisis. Our findings document the heterogeneous effects of platforms during the pandemic, underscore the critical role that digital technologies play in enabling business resilience in the economy, and provide insight into how platforms can manage competing incentives when balancing market expansion and growth goals with the competitive interests of their incumbent providers.
翻译:我们使用Uber技术的订单级数据,研究2020年美国COVID-19大流行和随后企业停业对Uber Eats平台上小型商业餐馆供需的影响如何,我们发现证据表明,小餐馆在餐饮频道关闭后,平台上的活动大幅增加;我们记录地方和餐馆的具体特点如何通过数字频道调节活动增加的规模,并解释这些增加可能是由于需求和供方冲击造成的。我们发现,经济冲击后竞争效应的强度增加,表明平台上供应商数目的增长既导致市场扩张,也导致供应商之间的竞争加剧。我们发现,针对这一冲击的平台活动不仅具有短期影响:需求冲击较大的餐馆在关闭一年后在平台上生存率较高,这表明平台渠道有助于在危机发生后实现长期的复原力。我们发现,平台在大流行病期间的平台影响各异,强调了数字技术在增强经济企业复原力方面的关键作用,并深入了解平台在平衡市场扩张和当前发展目标时如何管理竞合利益,同时了解平台如何在平衡当前供应商的竞争力增长目标时管理竞合的激励。