• Journal of Regulation Studies
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.123-151
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• 2018

There have been voluminous debates on the economic effects of the Sunday shopping restriction in Korea. This paper summarizes the issues on the restriction, critically reviews the previous researches, and proposes policy alternatives. First, the Sunday shopping restriction in Korea significantly lowers supply-side efficiency. Second, the restriction considerably reduces demand-side efficiency due to higher transaction costs. Third, there is no empirical evidence showing the restriction improves equity overall. Fourth, even if equity improvement occurs, there are a number of policy alternatives that can achieve the same equity effect with less efficiency loss.