Ruihua Guo.

This study examines how tropical cyclones affect daily urban consumer spending in China. Using China UnionPay transaction data from 2011 to 2018 and a stacked difference-in-differences framework, the analysis traces daily consumption dynamics. Results indicate that cyclone landfall causes a decline in transaction counts and values. Spending recovers within three days, suggesting urban economic resilience. The paper documents intertemporal consumption substitution where residents shift purchases forward in anticipation of storms. This anticipatory response is present in restaurant, supermarket and pharmacy spending. Cities hit during initial landfall show larger consumption responses compared to those affected as storms move inland. These findings demonstrate that early warning systems facilitate household-level adaptive behavior. By enabling pre-storm stockpiling, meteorological forecasts help reduce the economic costs of disaster disruption. This research highlights the role of information infrastructure in urban resilience to extreme weather.

We are studying the impacts of subsidized shared transport services on visitations and consumption of affected POIs in Los Angeles, based on more than 45 million cell phone mobility data from 2018 to 2022, and conducting DiD methods to analyze the causal effects.