Abstract
Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world, with stores in 16 countries (including the United States) and annual revenues exceeding $400 billion. Wal-Mart owes its success primarily to its early and persistent investments in technology. Technology has allowed Wal-Mart not only to grow – adding stores in new markets and adding a broad range of products over the past half century – but also to cut its costs, making it a formidable competitor in almost every retail sector. Wal-Mart’s competitive effect lowers prices in local markets, in the process driving some of its competitors to contract or shut down.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Basker, E. 2005a. Job creation or destruction? Labor market effects of Wal-Mart expansion. The Review of Economics and Statistics 87: 174–183.
Basker, E. 2005b. Selling a cheaper mousetrap: Wal-Mart’s effect on retail prices. Journal of Urban Economics 58: 203–229.
Basker, E. 2006. When good instruments go bad. Unpublished paper, University of Missouri.
Basker, E. 2007. Causes and consequences of Wal-Mart’s expansion. Journal of Economic Perspectives 21: 177–198.
Basker, E. 2016. Does Wal-Mart sell inferior goods? Economic Inquiry. forthcoming.
Basker, E., and M. Noel. 2009. The evolving food chain: Competitive effects of Wal-Mart’s entry into the supermarket industry. Journal of Economics and Management Strategy 18: 977–1009.
Basker, E. and Van, P.H. 2008. Putting a smiley face on the dragon: Wal-Mart as catalyst to U.S.-China trade. Unpublished paper, University of Missouri.
Basker, E., S. Klimek, and P.H. Van. 2008. Supersize it: The growth of chains and the rise of the ‘big box’ retail format. Unpublished paper, University of Missouri.
Bianco, A. 2006. Wal-Mart: The Bully of Bentonville. New York: Doubleday.
Drewianka, S. and D. Johnson. 2009. Wal-Mart and local labor markets, 1990–2005. Unpublished paper, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
Fishman, C. 2006. The Wal-Mart effect. New York: Penguin.
Gladstone, R. 1992. No. 1 retailer slammed in ‘Dateline NBC’ show, stock falls. Associated Press, 21 December.
Hausman, J., and E. Leibtag. 2007a. Consumer benefits from increased competition in shopping outlets: Measuring the effect of Wal-Mart. Journal of Applied Econometrics 22: 1157–1177.
Hausman, J., and E. Leibtag. 2007b. Wal-Mart effects and CPI construction. In Price and productivity measurement, ed. W.E. Diewert, B.M. Balk, D. Fixler, K.J. Fox, and A.O. Nakamura. Victoria: Trafford Press.
Jantzen, R., D. Pescatrice, and A. Braunstein. 2009. Wal-Mart and the U.S. Economy. Eastern Economic Journal 35: 297–308.
Jia, P. 2008. What happens when Wal-Mart comes to town: An empirical analysis of the discount industry. Econometrica 76: 1263–1316.
Leonard, D. 2005. The only lifeline was the Wal-Mart. Fortune 152: 74, 3 October.
Neumark, D., J. Zhang, and S. Ciccarella. 2008. The effects of Wal-Mart on local labor markets. Journal of Urban Economics 63: 405–430.
Norman, A. 2004. The Case against Wal-Mart. Atlantic City: Raphel Marketing.
Vance, S.S., and R.V. Scott. 1994. Wal-Mart: A history of Sam Walton’s retail phenomenon. New York: Twayne.
Weinswig, D., and Tang, C. 2006. Equity research: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT). Citigroup Global Markets, 24 April.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Basker, E. (2018). Wal-Mart, Economics Of. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2976
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2976
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95188-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95189-5
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences