This paper explores the widely-accepted view that Wal-Mart causes significant harm to the traditional, small 'mom and pop' business sector of the U.S. economy. We present the first rigorous econometric investigation of this issue by examining the rate of self-employment and the number of...

Based on the publicly available information on the data sources and methodology used by the Census Bureau to estimate e-commerce and physical retail sales, and based on detailed e-mail communications with the Census official responsible for the retail trade data, we found, in a version of this...

We examine the relationship between investments in information technology (IT) and two measures of retail firm performance: labor productivity and productivity growth over the 1992 to 1997 period. We use untapped firm and establishment micro data from the Censuses of Retail Trade and the Assets...

We examine changes in the retail sector in the US over the period 1999 to 2017. We show that while there were fewer physical stores in 2017 compared to the start of the period (consistent with the widely reported notion of a “retail apocalypse”), other indicators including employment, real...

Despite extensive research on retailers’ price responses to demand shocks, much less is known about their non-price adjustments. Using heterogeneity in timing, location, and magnitude of income/wealth shocks associated with the 2008 Great Recession, we explore how U.S. retail stores adjusted...

This study focuses on the impact of the 2001 recession as well as the subsequent expansion on U.S. trade (i.e., retail and wholesale) firms' short-term assets and liabilities. The paper also analyzes the differential effects on long-term debt and cash flow levels between retail and wholesale...

In settings where most workers have full-time schedules, hourly wages are appropriate primary indicators of job quality and worker outcomes. However, in sectors where full-time schedules do not dominate - primarily service-producing activities - total hours matter, in addition to hourly wages,...

State and federal minimum wage hikes are likely to impact the retail industry employing a great number of less well-compensated part-time workers. Despite the relevance of this issue, it is not clear how minimum wage increases affect full-time and part-time retail employees differentially. In...

Using an administrative payroll dataset for 2.6 million retail workers, we find that the staggered rollout of a major e-commerce firm's fulfillment centers reduces traditional retail workers' income in geographically proximate counties by 2.4%. Wages of hourly workers, especially part-time...

In settings where most workers have full-time schedules, hourly wages are appropriate primary indicators of job quality and worker outcomes. However, in sectors where full-time schedules do not dominate — primarily service-producing activities — total hours matter, in addition to hourly...