An empirical study of RFID productivity in the U.S. retail supply chain

Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID, technology has received great attention when, beginning in 2003, Walmart announced its plan to use the technology. RFID׳s automatic scanning ability can reduce product scanning error rates and product scanning manpower, which can lead to increased labor productivity. This paper evaluates labor productivity of RFID adopted retailers. This paper uses data from financial statements and explains the association between RFID technology and adopted retailer׳s labor productivity. The regression analysis using the Cobb-Douglas production function shows that RFID retailers have a higher labor to gross income elasticity than their non-RFID counterpart, indicating that RFID retailers have higher labor productivity.