Changing Visit Patterns In Philadelphia During The Coronavirus Pandemic

This paper addresses changing visit patterns in Philadelphia during the Coronavirus pandemic by examining various trends in visit patterns. The analysis uses aggregated cell-phone geolocation data to test for divergence in the number of visits made to Asian establishments relative to other establishments as well as differences in the changing frequency of visits from tracts with different incomes and racial majorities. The change in visits will be observed by comparing visits in weeks during 2020 to a reference week pre-COVID-19. Event study and differences in differences regressions are used to assess the statistical significance of these trends. Results from this study show that: 1) Changes in visit patterns to Asian establishments are not disproportionately affected by COVID-19; 2) Residents of high-income tracts do appear to reduce their visits by more than residents of other tracts after the local outbreak of COVID-19, but these differences are not statistically significant; 3) There is a statistically significant divergence in visit behavior: residents of Black and Hispanic majority tracts reduce their visit frequency by less than residents of White majority tracts.