IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/isu/genres/35202.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Revisiting Wal-Mart's Impact on Iowa Small Town Retail: Twenty-Five Years Later

Author

Listed:
  • Stone, Kenneth E.
  • Artz, Georgeanne M.

Abstract

Stone conducted the first study of Wal-Mart stores economic impact in Iowa in 1988. Since then, research on Wal-Mart's impacts has exploded. Recent studies employ sophisticated statistical techniques to more accurately measure the size and direction of effects. Many reach conclusions similar to Stone's original work. This paper updates the original Stone study with additional years of data. It draws on recent methodological advances to help account for Wal-Mart's strategic location decisions on estimated retail sales impacts in Iowa. Consistent with previous studies, we find that Wal-Mart's entry into smaller trade centers in Iowa had a big initial impact on host town retail sales, with some categories experiencing large significant increases while others saw declines in sales per capita. Wal-Mart's presence helped to stabilize or even expand the local retail sector of most rural Iowa host communities. To conclude, policy implications for local economic development officials are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Stone, Kenneth E. & Artz, Georgeanne M., 2012. "Revisiting Wal-Mart's Impact on Iowa Small Town Retail: Twenty-Five Years Later," Staff General Research Papers Archive 35202, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:isu:genres:35202
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www2.econ.iastate.edu/papers/p15202-2012-05-31.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. A. Smith, Jeffrey & E. Todd, Petra, 2005. "Does matching overcome LaLonde's critique of nonexperimental estimators?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 125(1-2), pages 305-353.
    3. Deller, Steven C. & McConnon, James Jr. C. & Stone, Kenneth E., 1991. "The Measurement of a Communityï¾’S Retail Market," Staff General Research Papers Archive 11229, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    4. Angrist, Joshua D. & Krueger, Alan B., 1999. "Empirical strategies in labor economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 23, pages 1277-1366, Elsevier.
    5. Irwin, Elena G. & Clark, Jill, 2006. "Wall Street vs. Main Street: What are the Benefits and Costs of Wal-Mart to Local Communities?," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 21(2), pages 1-6.
    6. Stone, Kenneth E., 1995. "Competing With the Retail Giants," Staff General Research Papers Archive 5307, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    7. 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.
    8. Georgeanne M. Artz & Kenneth E. Stone, 2006. "Analyzing the Impact of Wal-Mart Supercenters on Local Food Store Sales," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 88(5), pages 1296-1303.
    9. Ozment, John & Martin, Greg, 1990. "Changes in the competitive environments of rural trade areas : Effects of discount retail chains," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 277-287, November.
    10. Basker, Emek, 2011. "The Causes and Consequences of Wal-Mart’s Growth," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 5, pages 110-134.
    11. Panle Jia, 2008. "What Happens When Wal-Mart Comes to Town: An Empirical Analysis of the Discount Retailing Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 76(6), pages 1263-1316, November.
    12. Stone, Kenneth E., 1991. "Competing with the Mass Merchandisers," Staff General Research Papers Archive 11230, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    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. Han, Mengjie & Mihaescu, Oana & Li, Yujiao & Rudholm, Niklas, 2018. "Comparison and one-stop shopping after big-box retail entry: A spatial difference-in-difference analysis," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 175-187.

    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. Georgeanne M. Artz & Kenneth E. Stone, 2012. "Revisiting WalMart’s Impact on Iowa Small-Town Retail," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 26(4), pages 298-310, November.
    2. Alessandro Bonanno & Stephan J. Goetz, 2012. "WalMart and Local Economic Development," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 26(4), pages 285-297, November.
    3. 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.
    4. Peralta, Denis & Kim, Man-Keun, 2016. "Big-Box Retailers and Personal Income Growth in the U.S," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235216, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Håkansson, Johan & Li, Yujiao & Mihaescu, Oana & Rudholm, Niklas, 2016. "Big-box retail entry in urban and rural areas: Are there productivity spillovers to incumbent retailers?," HUI Working Papers 118, HUI Research.
    6. Sanchez-Vidal, Maria, 2019. "Retail shocks and city structure," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 103394, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Borrescio-Higa, Florencia, 2015. "Can Walmart make us healthier? Prescription drug prices and health care utilization," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 37-53.
    8. Sven-Olov Daunfeldt & Oana Mihaescu & Helena Nilsson & Niklas Rudholm, 2017. "What happens when IKEA comes to town?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(2), pages 313-323, February.
    9. Fabiano Schivardi & Eliana Viviano, 2011. "Entry Barriers in Retail Trade," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(551), pages 145-170, March.
    10. Florin Maican & Matilda Orth, 2017. "Productivity Dynamics and the Role of ‘Big-Box’ Entrants in Retailing," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(2), pages 397-438, June.
    11. 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.
    12. Han, Mengjie & Mihaescu, Oana & Li, Yujiao & Rudholm, Niklas, 2018. "Comparison and one-stop shopping after big-box retail entry: A spatial difference-in-difference analysis," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 175-187.
    13. Maria Sanchez Vidal, 2016. "Small shops for sale! The effects of big-box openings on grocery stores," Working Papers 2016/12, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    14. Javorcik, Beata S. & Li, Yue, 2013. "Do the biggest aisles serve a brighter future? Global retail chains and their implications for Romania," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 348-363.
    15. Art Carden & Charles Courtemanche & Jeremy Meiners, 2009. "Does Wal-Mart reduce social capital?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 138(1), pages 109-136, January.
    16. repec:rre:publsh:v:38:y:2008:i:1:p:8-28 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Daunfeldt, Sven-Olov & Mihaescu, Oana & Öner, Özge & Rudholm, Niklas, 2019. "Retail and place attractiveness: The effects of big-box entry on property values," HFI Working Papers 1, Institute of Retail Economics (Handelns Forskningsinstitut).
    18. Iacovone, Leonardo & Javorcik, Beata & Keller, Wolfgang & Tybout, James, 2015. "Supplier responses to Walmart's invasion in Mexico," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 1-15.
    19. Maria Sánchez-Vidal, 2019. "Retail shocks and city structure," CEP Discussion Papers dp1636, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    20. Courtemanche, Charles & Carden, Art, 2009. "The skinny on big box retailing: Wal-Mart, warehouse clubs, and obesity," MPRA Paper 25326, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Matias Busso & Sebastian Galiani, 2019. "The Causal Effect of Competition on Prices and Quality: Evidence from a Field Experiment," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 33-56, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wal-Mart; retail trade; Iowa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L81 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Retail and Wholesale Trade; e-Commerce
    • R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:isu:genres:35202. 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: Curtis Balmer (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deiasus.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.