RETAIL GROSS MARGINS: SOME INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS

Compares the gross margins on a range of retail business categories across six European Community countries and the USA, using data derived from official national statistics. Results show that the USA had the highest gross margins for most comparable categories, followed by Britain, and Ireland had the lowest margins in nearly every category. These margin differences did not have a strong correlation with GDP per head of population. Discusses several limitations of both the data and their interpretation. Argues that gross margin as a percentage of retail sales is a useful comparative measure of the gross cost of the retail function. Queries the relevance of the output measure value added to micro‐economic analysis, in the context of increased externalization of services and labour.