Does Wal-Mart Sell Inferior Goods?

I estimate the aggregate income elasticity of Wal-Mart's and Target's revenues using quarterly data for 1997-2006. I find that Wal-Mart's revenues increase during bad times, whereas Target's revenues decrease, consistent with Wal-Mart selling "inferior goods" in the technical sense of the term. An upper bound on the aggregate income elasticity of demand for Wal-Mart's wares is -0.5.

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Year of publication:	2008-04-29
Authors:	Basker, Emek
Institutions:	Economics Department, University of Missouri
Subject:	Retail \| Wal-Mart \| Target \| Inferior Goods

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Extent:	application/pdf
Series:	Working Papers.
Type of publication:	Book / Working Paper
Language:	English
Notes:	Published in Economic Inquiry 2011 Number 0805 16 pages longpgs.
Classification:	L81 - Retail and Wholesale Trade; Warehousing ; D12 - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
Source:	RePEc - Research Papers in Economics

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10004972795