Customer-Employee Substitution: Evidence from Gasoline Stations*

Emek Basker, Lucia Foster and Shawn Klimek ()

Working Papers from U.S. Census Bureau, Center for Economic Studies

Abstract: We document the adoption of self-service pumps in U.S. gasoline stations from 1977 to 1992. Using establishment-level data from the Census of Retail Trade over this period, we show that self-service stations employ approximately one quarter fewer attendants per pump, all else equal. The work done by these attendants has shifted to customers, biasing upwards conventional measures of productivity growth.

Keywords: Customer-employee substitution; retail; gasoline station; self service; full service; outsourcing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D22 D24 J23 L81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2015-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-his, nep-lma and nep-mkt
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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https://www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2015/CES-WP-15-45R.pdf Revised version, 2015 (application/pdf)
https://www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2015/CES-WP-15-45.pdf First version, 2015 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Customer‐employee substitution: Evidence from gasoline stations (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cen:wpaper:15-45

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