The effects of a new IKEA store on retail revenues, employment and inflow of purchasing power in the entry municipalities as well as in neighbouring municipalities were investigated using data from 2000–11. A propensity score-matching method was used to find non-IKEA entry municipalities that were as similar as possible to the entry municipalities based on the situation before entry. The results indicate that IKEA entry increased entry municipality durable goods revenues by about 20% and employment by about 17%. Only small and, in most cases, statistically insignificant effects were found in neighbouring municipalities.

This study examines the entry effects of a durable goods big box, IKEA, on incumbent firms in the retail, accommodation and restaurant sectors in Sweden. Using a difference-in-difference approach combined with matching, the effects of IKEA entry on the net turnover and employment of incumbent firms located at varying distances from the new IKEA store are examined. The results show that entry by IKEA increases the net turnover of retail firms near the entry site that sell complement goods, indicating that IKEA entry causes demand spillovers due to multipurpose shopping. IKEA entry also increases the net turnover of accommodation firms in the region, which indicates that the entrant has a positive effect on the attractivity of the area. The estimations reveal no effects on retail firms located in the affected city centers, which suggests that retail in central places may have a certain resilience to competition from out-of-town retail clusters. No robust effects on substitute goods retailers or restaurants are found.

The empirical literature on the effects of external malls on incumbent stores is inconclusive, and quantitative research on this topic is limited. In an attempt to add to the literature, this study examines the effect of the entry of external retail malls on store survival. Using a full firm population panel dataset at the store level covering the period 2000-2014, we examine the effect of a change in the distance to an external retail mall on the probability of retail store exit. In doing this we explicitly model the economic geography. We measure the economic activity in the location where these stores are situated using a market potential measure to gauge the economic density. The main result of this study is that the effects differ depending on where the incumbent firm is located. The effects on firms located in low-density areas and those on firms located in high-density areas differ dramatically. In low-density areas we find complementary effects which means that the probability of incumbent store exit is lesser. In high-density areas the estimated effect is the opposite, the entry of a new external mall increases the probability of incumbent store exit. The strength of the effects is dependent on the distance between the incumbent firm and the newly established external mall. Additionally, the size of effects differs between different parts of the retail sector. Effects remain over a number of years after entry of external malls but become smaller over time.

This study examines changes in the access to food stores between 2000-2013 using Swedish register data. The analysis shows that there have been increases of, on average, 400 meters in the neighborhood-level average distance to the nearest store. These changes are not systematically biased towards socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. I also analyze the relationship between population density and the distance from the neighborhood centroid to the nearest food store using a spatiotemporal analysis of panel data covering the same period. The analysis finds that a decline in population density is related to an increase in the distance to the nearest food store. This indicates that as long as there is a decline in population density, food store access by proximity will continue to decrease.