This paper analyzes Wal-Mart’s expansion into food retailing, focusing on its store conversion strategy via a formal IO entry framework. Forty-eight different competing model specifications are considered to determine how the company perceives competition from incumbent food retailers and how...

In spite of growing consumers’ interest for functional foods and strong growth of their markets, limited knowledge of the demand for these products and their profitability is available. Adapting the LA/AIDS model by means of Pinkse, Slade, and Brett’s (2002) distance metric method, this...

This paper investigates the impacts of store brands (i.e., private labels) and retail characteristics (scanners, deli, bakery, and pharmacy departments, ATMs, restaurant and store size) on fluid milk prices using 1,740 supermarket-level observations from four cities. Non-parametric results...

Despite considerable debate as to Wal-Mart’s impact on retail workers, to date there has been little structural analysis on the topic. This paper measures and tests for Wal-Mart’s monopsony power in local labor markets using a dominant-firm model and data on contiguous U.S. counties where...

The paper addresses critically the issue of the age/dependency ratio in the United States. It is argued that embedded in this 'objective' statistic are struggles among specific social groups and societal contradictions which only come to the fore when its assumptions, calculations and useage are...

Although most countries in the world are rapidly urbanizing, the majority of the global population – particularly the poor – continue to live in rural areas. This Handbook rejects the popular notion that urbanization should be universally encouraged and presents clear evidence of...

In this paper we assess the impact of the LD 114/1998 on the structure of the Italian food retailing industry. We use difference–in–difference technique, comparing the level of concentration, number of stores, average store size and level of service offered to consumers in regions enacting...

The IFAMR is published quarterly by the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IFAMA). www.ifama.org

This article reviews the literature that evaluates WalMart’s impacts on local economies. The authors first describe the methods used to account for potential reverse causality of WalMart’s store location decisions, and then they discuss the literature assessing the company’s...