Wal-Mart debate spurs documentary, research.

Publication: Newsday (Melville, NY)

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COPYRIGHT 2005 Newsday

Byline: Lauren Weber

Nov. 20--What began many years ago as a low murmur of discussion has grown into a full-throated debate. It's a question that is engaging activists, economists, legislators and even the company around which the controversy swirls: Is Wal-Mart good for America?

Well, it depends on whom you ask. But what's striking is the extent to which the debate has been characterized by high emotions, conflicting information and prodigious public-relations campaigns. When was the last time a single corporation was the subject of so much hand-wringing and public angst?

The debate has begun to spawn a mini-industry of research by economists and other academics exploring the effects of a corporate giant whose tentacles spread into nearly every corner of American society.

Earlier this month, Wal-Mart jumped into the fray with what seemed to be a good-faith attempt to measure, definitively, its economic impact on U.S consumers. It released a study by Global Insight, a Boston-based economic research firm that Wal-Mart had commissioned to conduct a year-long study addressing such issues as prices, jobs and wages.

Wal-Mart's study found that Wal-Mart has a largely positive effect on Americans' lives, and that its low prices give consumers more buying power by holding down prices throughout the economy. It also concluded that...

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