Opening Hours and Consumer Behavior: Evidence from GPS Data and Deregulation

2026-06-21

AI Summary

This study examines the impact of Sunday retail closing restrictions on consumer shopping behavior and welfare. Exploiting the 2019 repeal of North Dakota’s Sunday sales ban as a natural experiment and leveraging high-resolution consumer GPS trajectory data, the authors employ a difference-in-differences framework combined with an event study design to provide the first quantitative estimate of welfare losses induced by operating-hour regulations. The analysis reveals that the policy repeal significantly increased store visits on Sunday mornings and uncovers intertemporal, cross-store-type, and cross-border substitution effects. The welfare loss attributable to the prior restriction is equivalent to each consumer traveling an additional 1.4 miles. This work innovatively integrates large-scale mobility data with policy evaluation, offering novel micro-level evidence on the welfare consequences of retail regulation.

Abstract

In 2019, North Dakota repealed its Sunday closing law, which had required most non-grocery stores to close between midnight and noon. Using this policy change and consumer GPS data, we study the impact of opening hours on shopping behavior and welfare. We compare visits before and after the repeal in North Dakota and neighboring states using difference-in-differences and event-study designs. The repeal caused a large increase in Sunday morning visits, originating partly from intertemporal, store-type, and cross-border substitution. The closing law's welfare loss is equivalent to increasing the travel distance to affected stores by about 1.4 miles per consumer.

Problem

• opening hours
• consumer behavior
• Sunday closing law
• welfare loss
• retail regulation

Innovation

• opening hours
• consumer GPS data
• difference-in-differences
• welfare loss
• retail deregulation