Raising the Barcode Scanner: Technology and Productivity in the Retail Sector
- (pp. 1-27)
Abstract
Barcodes and barcode scanners transformed the grocery industry in the 1970s. I use store-level data from the 1972, 1977, and 1982 Census of Retail Trade, matched to data on store scanner installations, to estimate scanners' effect on labor productivity. I find that scanners increased a store's labor productivity, on average, by approximately 4.5 percent in the first few years. The effect was larger in stores carrying more packaged products, consistent with the presence of network externalities. Short-run gains were small relative to fixed costs, suggesting that the impediment to widespread adoption of the new technology was profitability, not coordination problems. (JEL J24, L24, L81, O33)Citation
Basker, Emek. 2012. "Raising the Barcode Scanner: Technology and Productivity in the Retail Sector." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 4 (3): 1-27. DOI: 10.1257/app.4.3.1Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
- L24 Contracting Out; Joint Ventures; Technology Licensing
- L81 Retail and Wholesale Trade; e-Commerce
- O33 Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
There are no comments for this article.
Login to Comment