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Does Wal‐Mart Cause an Increase in Anti‐Poverty Expenditures? *
Author(s) -
Hicks Michael
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
social science quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.482
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1540-6237
pISSN - 0038-4941
DOI - 10.1111/ssqu.12170
Subject(s) - medicaid , poverty , food stamps , demographic economics , economics , labour economics , wage , panel data , government (linguistics) , business , welfare , economic growth , health care , linguistics , philosophy , market economy , econometrics
Objectives This article addresses the role of Wal‐Mart Store entrance in changing expenditures on federal and state anti‐poverty transfers in the United States. Methods Using a panel of the conterminous 48 states, correcting for time and spatial autocorrelation and local government mix and policy changes. Results I find that the number of Wal‐Marts and their employment share in the retail sector have no impact on food stamps or AFDC/TANF expenditures. In models that account for retail employment share a 1 percent increase in the Wal‐Mart's share reduced AFDC/TANF expenditures by 3.3 percent. Conclusions 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.