Abstract

In 2006, the German federal government relinquished its power to determine store opening hours to the 16 federal states. Since then, substantial deregulation of shopping hours has occurred in all states except Bavaria and Saarland. Such deregulation could support economic growth, but it has been argued to hurt small businesses. Therefore, this thesis examines different store size categories to find possible effects of deregulation in Germany. Past studies have focused on the employment effects of deregulation, whereas this investigation employs a difference-in-difference approach with OLS regression on the number of stores in each size category. States that have extended store opening hours will be compared to those that have not. Theory predicts large stores to be more able to profit from efficiency gains and higher returns on investment due to extended hours. The results did not support the theoretical framework. Instead, the data indicate no significant effects on the number of stores and suggest that the constraints are not binding. Small businesses do not appear to have been affected by the change. If deregulation can be found to increase consumer spending and welfare, then such a policy change can have positive economic impacts. Further research should be aimed in this direction.

Notes

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Thesis Completion

2014

Semester

Fall

Advisor

Guldi, Melanie

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (B.S.B.A.)

College

College of Business Administration

Department

Economics

Subjects

Business Administration -- Dissertations, Academic; Dissertations, Academic -- Business Administration

Format

PDF

Identifier

CFH0004677

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Length of Campus-only Access

5 years

Document Type

Honors in the Major Thesis

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Included in

Economics Commons

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