%0 Report
        %A Lehner, Lukas
%A Parolin, Zachary
%A Pignatti, Clemente
%A Schmitt, Rafael Pintro
        %T Monopsony Power and Poverty: The Consequences of Walmart Supercenter Openings
        %D 2024
        %8 2024 Sep
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 17323
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp17323
        %X Prior research suggests that Walmart Supercenters exert substantial power over the low-wage labor market, though the consequences of Supercenter openings on household incomes and public finances are less clear. This study uses restricted-access Panel Study of Income Dynamics data from 1970 to 2019 to study how Walmart Supercenter openings affect poverty, tax liabilities, and receipt of income transfers. Using a stacked difference-in-differences approach, we find that the opening of a Supercenter leads to a 2 percentage point (16%) increase in poverty. This increase is channeled through declining annual earnings and persists for 10 years following the Supercenter's entry. Increases in poverty are particularly strong for younger and less-educated adults, and for adults with pre-treatment incomes below the national median. Moreover, Walmart Supercenter openings lead to a $200 (or 16%) per household per year increase in government income transfers received, and a $920 (or 5%) per household per year decrease in tax revenues.
        %K poverty
%K monopsony power
%K Walmart
%K local labor markets
%K economic inequality