Date of Award:

5-2016

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

Applied Economics

Committee Chair(s)

Man-Keun Kim

Committee

Man-Keun Kim

Committee

DeeVon Bailey

Committee

Reza Oladi

Committee

Ryan Bosworth

Committee

Vijay Kannan

Abstract

Throughout the years, big-box retail stores such as Wal-Mart and Target have become the focus of many studies researching their impacts on local economic outcomes (i.e. employment, wages, poverty level, food prices, etc.) within specific regions, states, counties and localities in the U.S. This dissertation covers three closely related topics in regional science: (i) the dynamic interrelationship among the presence of the big-box stores, retail wage, and employment, (ii) the impact of the big-box retailers on personal income growth, and (iii) the dynamic interrelationship between the presence of the big-box retailers and personal income growth. The research draws important insights with potential implications for regional developers and policy makers.

The work builds on previous literature and advanced statistical approaches such as the panel vector autoregression (panel – VAR) model and spatial econometrics. The empirical results suggest that: (i) the presence of big-box retailers increases retail jobs while it decreases retail wages. Wal-Mart seems to drive the effects while Target’s presence appears inconsequential. (ii) Counties with big-box retailers experienced slower growth in personal income between 2000 and 2005. After controlling for spatial dependence, the impact of Wal-Mart’s presence remains negative and significant while Target’s effect becomes insignificant, and (iii), big-box retailers have a negative impact on personal income growth over time, whereas personal income growth has an inconsequential effect in the number of big-box retailers in the region.

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