Estimating Heterogeneous Consumer Preferences for Restaurants and Travel Time Using Mobile Location Data

We estimate a model of consumer choices over restaurants using data from several thousand anonymous mobile phone users. Restaurants have latent characteristics (whose distribution may depend on restaurant observables) that affect consumers’ mean utility as well as willingness to travel to the restaurant, while each user has distinct preferences for these latent characteristics. We analyze how consumers reallocate their demand after a restaurant closes to nearby restaurants versus more distant restaurants, comparing our predictions to actual outcomes. We also address counterfactual questions such as what type of restaurant would attract the most consumers in a given location.