Shopping With Friends Give More Fun How Competition, Innovation and Productivity Relate in Dutch Retail Trade

This study focuses on the relation between competition, innovation and productivity in the Dutch retail trade. Everyone is very familiar with the retail trade.299 Sometimes, we do our shopping alone, now and then together with friends. But each of us has frequently or even daily contact with this part of the economy. In fact, the retail trade acts as an intermediate between producers and consumers. The industry is responsible for a considerable part of output and employment of industrialised countries, including the Netherlands. In fact, the share of nominal value added and employment was approximately 4 and 7 percent respectively in 2000 for the Netherlands.