David Bounie

Consumer Mobility, Offline and Online Regional Trade: Evidence from High-Frequency Transaction Data

(with Y. Camara and J. Galbraith).

International Economic Review, R&R.

The present study uses geo-located card transactions to build consumer mobility and inter-regional trade measures, allowing comparison of online and offline inter-regional purchases on a common sample of merchants which each conduct both offline and online card transactions, selected for unambiguous identification of region. Using data from France in the last pre-pandemic year, 2019, we find the effect of distance to be on average 46% smaller online than offline and more heavily concentrated in the already-larger regional economies.

Collecting and Selling Consumer Information: Selling Mechanisms Matter

(with A. Dubus and P. Waelbroeck).

International Journal of Industrial Organization, 103, 2025.

This article analyzes how take-it-or-leave-it offers (TIOLI) and auctions impact the selling strategy of a data intermediary, the price of information and the amount of consumer data collected. TIOLI leads to a higher consumer surplus compared to auctions, but encourages the intermediary to collect more consumer information than auctions, which is detrimental to consumer privacy. We discuss regulatory measures to protect at the same time consumer surplus and privacy.

Competition and the Two Margins of Privacy

(with A. Dubus and P. Waelbroeck).

International Review of Law & Economics, 83, 2025.

This article analyzes the relationship between privacy protection and market competition. We consider a model where firms collect data to price discriminate consumers in a competitive product market, and we distinguish two margins of privacy. Firms strategically choose the number of consumers on whom they collect data – the extensive margin of privacy – as well as the precision of information – the intensive margin of privacy. We show that policymakers can efficiently protect both margins of privacy and consumer surplus by safeguarding the intensive margin.

Consumer mobility and expenditure during the COVID-19 containments: Evidence from French transaction data

(with Y. Camara and J. Galbraith).

European Economic Review, 2023, Volume 151.

This paper investigates the effects of the pandemic containment periods in France on individuals’ movements, expenditure and adaptation to the shock, using billions of French bank card transactions measured before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We measure not only the effect on consumer expenditure, but also on quantities directly related to the containment restrictions, such as consumer mobility, number of retailers visited, and inter-regional purchases.

Selling Strategic Information in Digital Competitive Markets

(with A. Dubus and P. Waelbroeck)

The Rand Journal of Economics, 52(2), Summer 2021, pp. 283-313.

This paper investigates the strategies of a data broker in selling information to one or to two competing firms that can price-discriminate consumers. The data broker can strategically choose any segment of the consumer demand (information structure) to sell to firms that implement third-degree price discrimination. We show that the equilibrium profits of the data broker are maximized when (1) information identifies the consumers with the highest willingness to pay; (2) consumers with a low willingness to pay remain unidentified; (3) the data broker sells two symmetrical information structures. The data broker therefore strategically sells partial information on consumers in order to soften competition between firms. These results hold under first-degree price-discrimination.

Consumption Dynamics in the COVID Crisis: Real Time Insights from French Transaction & Bank Data

(with Youssouf Camara, Etienne Fize, John Galbraith, Camille Landais, Chloe Lavest, Tatiana Pazem, Baptiste Savatier).

CEPR Discussion Paper 15474; Covid Economics 59, 1-39, 2020

Card-Sales Response to Merchant Contactless Payment Acceptance

(with Y. Camara).

Journal of Banking & Finance, 119, 2020.