The Impact of Sunday Shopping Deregulation on Employment and
Hours of Work in the Retail Industry: Evidence from CanadaMikal Skuterud (McMaster University)
August 2000
Using aggregate data on employment and hours of work from three Canadian provinces at two levels of the retail trade industry, I estimate a simple dynamic labour demand model in order to examine retail firm responses to Sunday shopping deregulation. The estimates suggest that derregulation resulted in long run increases in both the employment level and average weekly hours of hourly paid retail workers. Comparison of the results between the two data sets suggests that the employment gains were larger among general merchandise stores than among more specialized retail establishments. In addition, despite evidence of an immediate shortfall in the employment level below the long run optimal level, the results from both data sets suggest that firms were unable to compensate by temporarily increasing the hours of existing employees.Download (356 Kb)
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