Tenth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

Food safety and food prices have been a major issue in China over several decades and along with the Chinese food industry’s recent industrialization and modernization. In this paper, we analyze the demand and supply for restaurant food and to assess the effects of media and policy events on consumer food preferences and the supply and demand for restaurant food. We use two empirical strategies: a regression discontinuity approach and a structural econometric approach. We apply both empirical approaches to a unique daily spatially-disaggregated order-level restaurant dataset we have collected that contains 1.6 million dining orders placed in 71 Chinese restaurants in 2015, all from a major restaurant chain company in China. Our research will help policymakers quantify the benefits of implementing future preventive food safety and sanitation policies. Similarly, by quantifying the impact of food safety events on firm profitability, our research will help restaurant firms make more informed decisions about voluntarily implementing stricter food safety systems in their operations.