Opening Hours and Consumer Behavior: Evidence from GPS Data and Deregulation

Javier D. Donna, Marit Hinnosaar, Toomas Hinnosaar and André Trindade
Additional contact information
Javier D. Donna: University of Miami-Rimini Center for Economic Analysis
Marit Hinnosaar: University of Nottingham - CEPR
Toomas Hinnosaar: University of Nottingham - CEPR
André Trindade: Nova School of Business and Economics

No 411, Working Papers from Red Nacional de Investigadores en Economía (RedNIE)

Abstract: In 2019, North Dakota repealed its Sunday closing law, which had required most non-grocery stores to close between midnight and noon. Using this policy change and consumer GPS data, we study the impact of opening hours on shopping behavior and welfare. We compare visits before and after the repeal in North Dakota and neighboring states using difference-in-differences and event-study designs. The repeal caused a large increase in Sunday morning visits, originating partly from intertemporal, store-type,and cross-border substitution. The closing law’s welfare loss is equivalent to increasing the travel distance to affected stores by about 1.4 miles per consumer.

Keywords: consumer behavior; opening hours; store choices; deregulation; GPS data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 L51 L81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2026-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec and nep-reg
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://rednie.eco.unc.edu.ar/files/DT/411.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aoz:wpaper:411

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Red Nacional de Investigadores en Economía (RedNIE) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Laura Inés D Amato ().