Transportation and Infrastructure, Retail Clustering, and Local Public Finance: Evidence from Wal-Mart's Expansion

The author examines the role highway infrastructure and local property tax rate variability play in retail agglomeration in Indiana from 1988 through 2003. To account for data errors and the potential endogeneity of taxes and infrastructure on retail agglomeration, he introduces a unique identification strategy that exploits the entrance timing and location of Wal-Mart stores in Indiana. Using a time-series cross-sectional model of Indiana’s 92 counties from 1988 through 2003, he estimates the impact highway infrastructure, property taxes, and big-box competition have in creating regional agglomerations. Among two separate specifications and a full and rural-only set of the data, the author finds considerable agreement in the results. In the full sample, he finds no relationship between property tax rates or highway infrastructure and retail agglomeration. Within the non-metropolitan statistical area (MSA) counties, this relationship is very modest, though it possesses considerable statistical certainty. Highway impacts within the non-MSA counties are significant and positively related to retail agglomeration, with the presence of highways explaining about 10 percent of total agglomeration variability. (JEL R11, R53)Infrastructure; endogeneity; taxation; Wal-Mart

What Do Quarterly Workforce Dynamics Tell Us About Wal-Mart? Evidence from New Stores in Pennsylvania

In this paper I seek to better inform debate regarding Wal-Mart’s local impact on wages, and employment dynamics by combining data on Wal-Mart stores with the recently release Quarterly Workforce Indicators provided by the US Census. Use a panel of Pennsylvania counties, who saw entrance of a Wal-Mart in 2002, I find a new store has no effect on existing employee wages in the retail sector. However, new retail sector hires experience a roughly $0.50 an hour increase in total compensation in the quarter Wal-Mart enters. The entrance of a Wal- Mart draws employees from existing businesses, reducing job creation while increasing net job flows. Wal-Mart also has a longer term effect on net employment of a little more than 50 jobs in a total year. This employment finding is quite similar to findings in Hicks and Wilburn [2001] and Basker [2005]. Perhaps most importantly, Wal-Mart entrance is associated with a dramatic decline in retail sector job turnovers (over 40 percent). This result challenges much of the received wisdom of Wal-Mart’s role in the retail sector. The policy implications of these findings echo those of Ken Stone, who cautions against activist policy in support, or against Wal-Mart at the local level. Disclosure: The author of this study owns no stock in Wal-Mart or any related firm (other than that held by the mutual fund companies Vanguard and TIAA-CREF). I have performed no paid consulting services from any retail firm, its developers, local governments or related entities since 2002 (though I continue to field frequent questions on my earlier research). I have received no honoraria related to Wal-Mart research (other than travel costs paid by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond in 2001). In short, except for roughly$1,500 purchases of diapers annual since 1999 I have no financial relationship with Wal-Mart or any affiliate that I am aware of.Wal-Mart, Pennsylvania, Quarterly Workforce Indicators

The Impact of Wal-Mart on Local Fiscal Health: Evidence from a Panel of Ohio Counties

This research analyzes selected fiscal impacts of Wal-Mart in Ohio from 1985 through 2003. Using a panel of counties, and accounting for spatial autocorrelation in an instrumental variable model I estimate impact of Wal-Mart and Super-Centers on selected revenues and transfer payments. On revenues I find that the presence of a Wal-Mart increases local commercial property tax assessments, resulting in collection increases of between $350,000 to roughly$1.3 million. Wal-Mart also is associated with higher levels of local labor force participation. On expenditures I also find that the presence of a Wal-Mart dramatically increases the per capita EITC claims in a county (between 18 and 43 percent), while the dollar value of these claims experiences mixed impacts between Wal-Mart and a Supercenter. Similarly, the impact of Wal-Mart on Foodstamps expenditures is mixed, but small in any case. There are no in-county impacts of Wal-Mart on expenditures on Temporary Assistance to Needy Families and its predecessor Aid to Families with Dependent Children. However, Medicaid expenditures experience growth which may amount to roughly 16 additional cases per county attributable to a single Wal- Mart. The per worker costs of Medicaid estimated in this study is consistent with reported levels in a number of states, and study estimates by Dube and Jacobs [2004], Carlson [2005] and Hicks [2005a]. The magnitude and statistical certainty of these findings, accompanied by a review of previous research suggests that local fiscal intervention, either through incentives or the much touted “Wal-Mart Tax” is unwarranted.

Does Wal-Mart Cause an Increase in Anti-Poverty Program Expenditures?

As the largest private sector employer in the United States, Wal-Mart experiences considerable scrutiny over its influence on a number of regional fiscal and economic issues. These include its impact on the local retail market structure, land use patterns, local fiscal conditions and general business practices. Criticism of Wal-Mart’s business practices include, but are not limited to its anti-unionization efforts, sale of imported goods, wage and compensation structure and the use of Federal and state anti-poverty transfers by its employees. In this paper I evaluate the concerns regarding the role of Wal-Mart in changing expenditures on Federal and state anti-poverty transfers in the United States. Using a panel of the conterminous 48 states, correcting for time and spatial autocorrelation and local government mix and policy changes, I find the number of Wal-Marts, and their employment share in the retail sector have no impact on Foodstamps expenditures. Expenditures on AFDC/TANF are unaffected by Wal-Mart in the test using the number of stores to represent Wal-Mart’s presence. In the retail employment share, the impact is negative, with a 1 percent increase in Wal-Mart’s share reduced AFDC/TANF expenditures by 3.3 percent. I find that Wal-Mart does increase Medicaid expenditures by roughly $898 per worker, which is consistent with other studies of the Medicaid costs per low wage worker across the United States.

Transportation and infrastructure, retail clustering, and local public finance: evidence from Wal-Mart's expansion

Transportation ; Retail trade ; Finance, Public

A CCD spectrum and production rates for Comet P/Temple 2

Now that comet P/Tempel 2 has been resurrected as the primary target for the CRAF mission, an analysis is presented of a 20 minute exposure taken Oct. 9, 1988. The comet displays a typical spectrum with no unusual omissions or additions. The comet therefore appears to be quite suitable for detailed spacecraft study as a representative object. Strong emissions by C2, NH2, CN, and OI sup 1 D are exhibited. Compared to the emissions, the continuum is moderately strong but appears somewhat weaker than for P/Halley. Production rates for H2O (from OI sup 1 D) and the parent of C2, NH2, and CN is presented and compared to P/Halley

Production rates for comet P/Temple 2 from long slit CCD spectroscopy

Since comet P/Temple-2 is one of the potential targets for the CRAF (Comet Rendezvous Asteroid Flyby) mission, we obtained long slit spectroscopic data with our CCD spectrograph during its 1988 apparition. As the same spectrograph was extensively used for observations of P/Halley, this allowed a direct spectroscopic comparison between the two objects. Furthermore we could choose a P/Halley spectrum which was taken at a heliocentric distance very close to that of P/Temple-2. Finally, we could adjust the integration windows along the slit to compensate for the different geocentric distances, so that roughly the same projected distance of the comets' comae was observed. The parameters for our observations are given

Evolving NoSQL Databases Without Downtime

NoSQL databases like Redis, Cassandra, and MongoDB are increasingly popular because they are flexible, lightweight, and easy to work with. Applications that use these databases will evolve over time, sometimes necessitating (or preferring) a change to the format or organization of the data. The problem we address in this paper is: How can we support the evolution of high-availability applications and their NoSQL data online, without excessive delays or interruptions, even in the presence of backward-incompatible data format changes? We present KVolve, an extension to the popular Redis NoSQL database, as a solution to this problem. KVolve permits a developer to submit an upgrade specification that defines how to transform existing data to the newest version. This transformation is applied lazily as applications interact with the database, thus avoiding long pause times. We demonstrate that KVolve is expressive enough to support substantial practical updates, including format changes to RedisFS, a Redis-backed file system, while imposing essentially no overhead in general use and minimal pause times during updates.Comment: Update to writing/structur