Changes in Out-of-Home Food and Alcohol Expenditure during the COVID-19 Pandemic

HSE Economic Journal. 2025. Vol. 29. No. 1. P. 132–159.

Voytenkov V.

This study investigates changes in the expenditure on out-of-home food and alcohol during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our research specifically explores intergroup variations among households, taking into account the dissimilarity of Russian regions in light of the degree of quarantine restrictions enforced. To test the research hypotheses, we use microdata from the Household Budget Survey conducted by the Federal State Statistics Service. To compare the expenditures on out-of-home food and alcohol in regions with soft, medium, and hard restrictive measures, we employ t-test for comparing means and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for comparing distributions. The Tobit model is applied to compare different social groups' household spending habits. The joint analysis of out-of-home food and alcohol expenditure enables the separation of involuntary savings from coping strategies using models for censored data, thereby facilitating an in-depth assessment of household well-being in the face of shocks. Our findings show a reduction in out-of-home food expenditure across all social groups and all levels of quarantine restrictions. The share of alcohol expenditure decreased in almost all social groups in regions with soft measures but significantly increased in those with medium and hard restrictions.

Keywords: households, COVID-19, alcohol expenditure, out-of-home food expenditure, intergroup analysis, rigidity of quarantine measures

Publication based on the results of: Current Issues of Macroeconomic Dynamics and Macroeconomic Policy in Russia (2025)