Change at the Checkout: Tracing the Impact of a Process Innovation

Emek Basker

No 1302, Working Papers from Department of Economics, University of Missouri

Abstract: Barcode scanners, introduced in the early 1970s, were a foundational process innovation in the grocery supply chain. By 1984 scanners had been installed in 10% of food stores in the U.S. Difference-in-difference analysis of city-level price data shows that scanners reduced prices of groceries by about 1.4% in their first decade. The results are consistent with prior estimates of labor saving by scanners and better information available to stores. Early adopters and adopters in states that imposed fewer restrictions on complementary process innovations contributed disproportionately to the price decreases.

Keywords: baretail; supermarkets; prices; technology; Process Innovation; barcode scanners (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D22 L81 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pgs.
Date: 2013-02-06, Revised 2013-06-25
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Journal of Industrial Economics 2015

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Journal Article: Change at the Checkout: Tracing the Impact of a Process Innovation (2015)
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