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The Effects of Wal-Mart on Local Labor Markets

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Author Info
David Neumark
Junfu Zhang
Stephen Ciccarella

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Abstract

We estimate the effects of Wal-Mart stores on county-level retail employment and earnings, accounting for endogeneity of the location and timing of Wal-Mart openings that most likely biases the evidence against finding adverse effects of Wal-Mart stores. We address the endogeneity problem using a natural instrumental variables approach that arises from the geographic and time pattern of the opening of Wal-Mart stores, which slowly spread out from the first stores in Arkansas. The employment results indicate that a Wal-Mart store opening reduces county-level retail employment by about 150 workers, implying that each Wal-Mart worker replaces approximately 1.4 retail workers. This represents a 2.7 percent reduction in average retail employment. The payroll results indicate that Wal-Mart store openings lead to declines in county-level retail earnings of about $1.4 million, or 1.5 percent. Of course, these effects occurred against a backdrop of rising retail employment, and only imply lower retail employment growth than would have occurred absent the effects of Wal-Mart.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 11782.

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Date of creation: Nov 2005
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Publication status: published as Forthcoming in Journal of Urban Economics
Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11782

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor
J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
R1 - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics - - General Regional Economics

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Jerry Hausman & Ephraim Leibtag, 2004. "CPI Bias from Supercenters: Does the BLS Know that Wal-Mart Exists?," NBER Working Papers 10712, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  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, 02. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Khanna, Naveen & Tice, Sheri, 2000. "Strategic Responses of Incumbents to New Entry: The Effect of Ownership Structure, Capital Structure, and Focus," Review of Financial Studies, Oxford University Press for Society for Financial Studies, vol. 13(3), pages 749-79.
  4. Jerry Hausman & Ephraim Leibtag, 2005. "Consumer Benefits from Increased Competition in Shopping Outlets: Measuring the Effect of Wal-Mart," NBER Working Papers 11809, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Douglas Staiger & James H. Stock, 1997. "Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(3), pages 557-586, May.
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  6. Naveen Khanna, 2001. "The Bright Side of Internal Capital Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(4), pages 1489-1528, 08. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Thomas J. Holmes, 2008. "The Diffusion of Wal-Mart and Economies of Density," NBER Working Papers 13783, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. John Chao & Norman Swanson, 2003. "Alternative Approximations of the Bias and MSE of the IV Estimator Under Weak Identification With an Application to Bias Correction," Departmental Working Papers 200315, Rutgers University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  9. Hausman, Jerry A, 1978. "Specification Tests in Econometrics," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(6), pages 1251-71, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Barnes, Nora Ganim & Connell, Allison & Hermenegildo, Lisa & Mattson, Lucinda, 1996. "Regional differences in the economic impact of Wal-Mart," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 21-25. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. 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, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Bonanno, Alessandro & Lopez, Rigoberto A., 2008. "Wal-Mart’s Monopsony Power in Local Labor Markets," 2008 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida 6219, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association). [Downloadable!]
  2. Hicks, Michael, 2006. "Transportation and Infrastructure, Retail Clustering, and Local Public Finance: Evidence from Wal-Mart's Expansion," MPRA Paper 52, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Michael Hicks, 2007. "Wal-Mart’s Impact on Local Revenue and Expenditure Instruments in Ohio, 1988–2003," Atlantic Economic Journal, International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 35(1), pages 77-95, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Emek Basker, 2008. "Does Wal-Mart Sell Inferior Goods?," Working Papers 0805, Department of Economics, University of Missouri. [Downloadable!]
  5. Emek Basker, 2007. "When Good Instruments Go Bad," Working Papers 0706, Department of Economics, University of Missouri. [Downloadable!]
  6. Michael J Hicks, 2008. "Estimating Wal-Mart's Impacts in Maryland: A Test of Identification Strategies and Endogeneity Tests," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan Journals, vol. 34(1), pages 56-73, Winter. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Fabiano Schivardi & Eliana Viviano, 2007. "Entry barriers in Italian retail trade," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 616, Bank of Italy, Economic Research Department. [Downloadable!]
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