IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aaea04/20149.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Wal-Mart and Rural Poverty

Author

Listed:
  • Goetz, Stephan J.
  • Swaminathan, Hema

Abstract

Wal-Mart® has created tremendous economic benefits for consumers by providing more choices at lower prices. The benefits are felt especially in communities that had only local retail monopolies prior to the arrival of the store. Yet no mretailer evokes stronger negative emotions than this chain. Recent media attention has focused on questionable labor practices and low wages combined with lack of benefits paid by the corporation, while academic studies have examined effects of the stores on retail wages, employment levels and numbers of establishments. Missing from the literature is an analysis of whether the "Wal-Mart effect" is large enough to measurably influence community-wide family poverty rates over time. This is the first study to carefully and comprehensively examine whether a relationship exists between existing and new locations of Wal-Mart stores and county-wide faily poverty rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Goetz, Stephan J. & Swaminathan, Hema, 2004. "Wal-Mart and Rural Poverty," 2004 Annual meeting, August 1-4, Denver, CO 20149, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea04:20149
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.20149
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/20149/files/sp04go07.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.20149?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kilkenny, Maureen & Thisse, Jacques, 1999. "The Economics of Location: A Selective Survey," Staff General Research Papers Archive 1693, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    2. Emek Basker, 2005. "Job Creation or Destruction? Labor Market Effects of Wal-Mart Expansion," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(1), pages 174-183, February.
    3. Michael J. Hicks & Kristy Wilburn, 2005. "The Locational Impact of Wal-Mart Entrance: A Panel Study of the Retail Trade Sector in West Virginia," Urban/Regional 0511011, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Kerry D. Vandell & Charles C. Carter, 1992. "Retail Store Location and Market Analysis: A Review of the Research," Wisconsin-Madison CULER working papers 92-02, University of Wisconsin Center for Urban Land Economic Research.
    5. Huang, Chung L. & Epperson, James E. & Cude, Brenda J. & Woo, Byung-Joon, 2002. "Wal-Mart Supercenter: The New Low-Price Food Retailer in Town," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 17(2), pages 1-6.
    6. Hicks, Michael J. & Wilburn, Kristy L., 2001. "The Regional Impact of Wal-Mart Entrance: A Panel Study of the Retail Trade Sector in West Virginia," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 31(3), pages 305-313, Winter.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Martens, Bobby J. & Florax, Raymond J.G.M. & Dooley, Frank J., 2005. "The Effect of Entry by Supercenter and Warehouse Club Retailers on Grocery Sales and Small Supermarkets: A Spatial Analysis," 2005 Annual meeting, July 24-27, Providence, RI 19176, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    2. Stephan J. Goetz & Sundar S. Shrestha, 2009. "Explaining Self‐Employment Success and Failure: Wal‐Mart Versus Starbucks, or Schumpeter Versus Putnam," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 90(1), pages 22-38, March.
    3. repec:rre:publsh:v:37:y:2007:i:2:p:251-78 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. repec:rre:publsh:v:37:y:2007:i:2:p:146-68 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Bonanno, Alessandro & Goetz, Stephan J., 2012. "Food Store Density, Nutrition Education, Eating Habits and Obesity," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 15(4), pages 1-26, November.
    6. Dube, Arindrajit & Lester, T. William & Eidlin, Barry, 2007. "Firm Entry and Wages: Impact of Wal-Mart Growth on Earnings Throughout the Retail Sector," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt22s5k4pv, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michael J. Hicks, 2006. "Transportation and infrastructure, retail clustering, and local public finance: evidence from Wal-Mart's expansion," Regional Economic Development, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue Oct, pages 100-114.
    2. Michael J. Hicks, 2005. "Does Wal-Mart Cause an Increase in Anti-Poverty Program Expenditures?," Public Economics 0511015, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Neumark, David & Zhang, Junfu & Ciccarella, Stephen, 2008. "The effects of Wal-Mart on local labor markets," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 405-430, March.
    4. Hicks, Michael J., 2007. "A Quasi-Experimental Test of Large Retail Store Impacts on Regional Labor Markets: The Case of Cabela's Retail Outlets," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 37(2), pages 1-7.
    5. Dube, Arindrajit & Lester, T. William & Eidlin, Barry, 2007. "Firm Entry and Wages: Impact of Wal-Mart Growth on Earnings Throughout the Retail Sector," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt22s5k4pv, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    6. Michael J. Hicks, 2005. "The Impact of Wal-Mart on Local Fiscal Health: Evidence from a Panel of Ohio Counties," Public Economics 0511016, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Vandegrift, Donald & Loyer, John & Kababik, David, 2011. "The effect of Walmart on the tax base: evidence from New Jersey," MPRA Paper 30937, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Martens, Bobby J. & Florax, Raymond J.G.M. & Dooley, Frank J., 2005. "The Effect of Entry by Supercenter and Warehouse Club Retailers on Grocery Sales and Small Supermarkets: A Spatial Analysis," 2005 Annual meeting, July 24-27, Providence, RI 19176, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    9. Stephan J. Goetz & Hema Swaminathan, 2006. "Wal‐Mart and County‐Wide Poverty," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 87(2), pages 211-226, June.
    10. Michael Hicks, 2007. "Wal-Mart’s Impact on Local Revenue and Expenditure Instruments in Ohio, 1988–2003," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 35(1), pages 77-95, March.
    11. Niklas Rudholm & Yujiao Li & Kenneth Carling, 2022. "How does big-box retail entry affect labor productivity in durable goods retailing? A synthetic control approach," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 69(1), pages 89-117, August.
    12. repec:rre:publsh:v:39:y:2009:i:1:p:73-83 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Rudholm, Niklas & Li, Yuijao & Kenneth, Carling, 2018. "How Does Big-Box Entry Affect Labor Productivity in Durable Goods Retailing? A Synthetic Control Approach," HUI Working Papers 130, HUI Research.
    14. Freedman, Emily A. & McConnon Jr., James C. & Hunt, Gary L. & Gabe, Todd M., 2016. "An Analysis of the Economic Impacts of Big-Box Stores on a Community’s Retail Sector: Evidence from Maine," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 46(2), December.
    15. Stapp, Jacob, 2014. "The Walmart Effect: Labor Market Implications in Rural and Urban Counties," SS-AAEA Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 2014, pages 1-17.
    16. repec:rre:publsh:v:38:y:2008:i:1:p:8-28 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Marshall, Maria I. & Peake, Whitney O., 2006. "What Do We Really Know About Entrepreneurs? An Analysis Of Nascent Entrepreneurs In Indiana," Staff Papers 28622, Purdue University, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    18. Michael Hicks & Stanley Keil & Lee Spector, 2013. "Mom & Pop’s or Big Box Stores: Some evidence of Walmart’s impact on retail trade," Working Papers 201302, Ball State University, Department of Economics, revised Mar 2013.
    19. Suzanne Konzelmann & Charles Craypo & Rabih Aridi & Frank Wilkinson, 2005. "The national varieties of capitalism: the cases of Wal-mart and Ikea," Working Papers wp314, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    20. Bonanno, Alessandro & Lopez, Rigoberto A., 2012. "Wal-Mart's monopsony power in metro and non-metro labor markets," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 569-579.
    21. Michael J. Hicks & Stanley R. Keil & Lee C. Spector, 2012. "Mom-and-Pops or Big Box Stores," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 26(4), pages 311-320, November.
    22. repec:wvu:wpaper:06-05 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Donald Vandegrift, 2016. "The effect of Walmart and Target on property tax rates," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 309-327, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Marketing;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:aaea04:20149. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaeaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.