Higher sales tax in the home country relative to a neighboring country creates a huge incentive for consumers who live closer to the border to purchase goods across the border. Using a unique panel dataset of consumer financial transactions, we find that, when facing higher domestic sales tax,...

Exploiting a novel panel dataset of consumer financial transactions in Singapore, we examine the consumption response to an anticipated, transitory price shock generated by the nation-wide annual sale event. Consistent with theory, we find inter-temporal substitution where consumers spend less...

We study the spending response at offline retailers to China's Singles Day, the world's largest E-Commerce shopping holiday. Consumer's credit and debit card spending at the brick-and-mortar stores increases by 10.6% on the Singles Day during 2013-2017. The increase is concentrated in physical...

Using a large, representative sample of credit and debit card transactions in Singapore, this paper studies the consumption response of individuals whose same-building neighbors experienced personal bankruptcy. The unique bankruptcy rules in Singapore suggest liquidity shocks drive personal...

We use daily transaction data in 214 cities to study the impact of COVID-19 on consumption after China's outbreak in late January 2020. Based on difference-in-differences estimation, daily offline consumption—via UnionPay card and QR scanner transactions—fell by 32%, or 18.57 million RMB per...

Using a large, representative sample of consumer financial transaction data, this paper studies the consumption and savings response to a permanent increase in income tax. In 2015, Singapore marginally raised the income taxes on high-income taxpayers. Using difference-in-differences regressions,...