Papers Presented at Global Insight's Conference on Economic Impacts of Wal-Mart
Posted November 5, 2005
Editor's note: These papers were presented at a conference organized by the consulting firm Global Insight, contracted by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. The company pledged to select papers based on their merit, without regard to whether the findings were favorable toward their client.
This story by Business Week summarizes two of the reports released prior to the conference and provides background on the event, which occurred November 4, 2005.
Emek Basker: Selling a Cheaper Mousetrap: Wal-Mart's Effect on Retail Prices
Emek Basker and Pham Hoang Van: Putting a Smiley Face on the Dragon: Wal-Mart as Catalyst to US-China Trade
Marlon G. Boarnet, Randall Crane, Daniel G. Chatman, and Michael Manville: Emerging planning challenges in retail: The case of Wal-Mart
Jerry Hausman and Ephraim Leibtag: Consumer Benefits from Increased Competition in Shopping Outlets: Measuring the Effect of Wal-Mart
Albert Myles, Kenneth Stone, and Georgeanne Artz: The Economic Impact of Wal-Mart Supercenters on Existing Businesses in Mississippi
The Effects of Wal-Mart on Local Labor Markets by David Neumark (University of California-Irvine), Junfu Zhang (Clark University), and Stephen Ciccarella (Cornell University): Link is to their final edit, published in 2007.
[This is the only study we've seen that looks at indirect (businesses not in direct competition), as well as direct, impacts of Wal-Mart on local employment -- a critical factor. Key findings: 8 years following a Wal-Mart opening, total local business payrolls decline, and county-level retail employment dropped by 150 jobs. With an average "superstore" employing 360 people, this suggests 1.4 jobs are eliminated (after 8 years) for each new Wal-Mart job created as existing businesses scale back or close.
The following three studies by Michael Hicks are hosted on this web page.
The Impact of Wal-Mart on Local Fiscal Health: Evidence from a Panel of Ohio Counties
What Do Quarterly Workforce Dynamics Tell Us About Wal-Mart?
Evidence from New Stores in Pennsylvania
Does Wal-Mart Cause an Increase in Anti-Poverty Program Expenditures?
Global Insight, the company hired by Wal-Mart to run the conference and screen papers for academic merit, was also commissioned to produce this report on The Economic Impact of Wal-Mart, which has been
For additional studies on economic impacts of Wal-Mart, see this page by The New Rules Project.
See our huge collection of articles, studies, internal documents and more on Wal-Mart and big box stores.
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