Mom-and-Pop Meet Big-Box: Complements or Substitutes?

John Haltiwanger, Ron S. Jarmin () and C.J. Krizan ()

No 15348, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: In part due to the popular perception that Big-Boxes displace smaller, often family owned (a.k.a. Mom-and-Pop) retail establishments, several empirical studies have examined the evidence on how Big-Boxes’ impact local retail employment but no clear consensus has emerged. To help shed light on this debate, we exploit establishment-level data with detailed location information from a single metropolitan area to quantify the impact of Big-Box store entry and growth on nearby single unit and local chain stores. We incorporate a rich set of controls for local retail market conditions as well as whether or not the Big-Boxes are in the same sector as the smaller stores. We find a substantial negative impact of Big-Box entry and growth on the employment growth at both single unit and especially smaller chain stores – but only when the Big-Box activity is both in the immediate area and in the same detailed industry.

JEL-codes: L26 L81 R11 R3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com and nep-ure
Date: 2009-09
Note: EFG
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Working Paper: Mom-and-Pop Meet Big-Box: Complements or Substitutes? (2009)
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