Hypermarket Competition and the Diffusion of Retail Checkout Barcode Scanning

Jonathan Beck (), Michal Grajek and Christian Wey

No 5386, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: This paper presents a set of panel data to study the diffusion of retail checkout barcode scanning in ten European countries over the period 1981-1996. Estimates from a standard diffusion model suggest that countries differ most in the long-run diffusion level of barcode scanning and less in timing or diffusion speed. We present evidence that the emergence of hypermarkets raises competitive intensity and use hypermarket data, among other variables, in a pooled estimation. Results suggest that hypermarket competition reduces the long-run adoption level in retailing. In particular, the emergence of hypermarkets seems to deepen retail segmentation by inducing potential adopters (e.g. supermarkets) to exit the market and/or by discouraging adoption by other retail formats. Consistent with expectations, scale and income effects spur IT diffusion and there is a classic substitution effect: when wages rise, diffusion of a labour-saving technology such as barcode-scanning is more intense. We do not find a significant impact of employment protection legislation.

Keywords: hypermarkets; IT diffusion; retail competition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L5 L81 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com, nep-cse and nep-ino
Date: 2005-11
View list of references View citations in EconPapers

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP5386.asp (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Working Paper: Hypermarket Competition and the Diffusion of Retail Checkout Barcode Scanning (2005)
Working Paper: Hypermarket Competition and the Diffusion of Retail Checkout Barcode Scanning (2005)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5386

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP5386.asp

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers
Address: Centre for Economic Policy Research, 53--56 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DG
Series data maintained by ().