Department of Economics and Business Economics

The liberalization of trade turned on a wave of cross border M&A after the turn of the century that dramatically increased the concentration of ownership dramatically in the global beer market, where the four largest breweries now serve close to 60% of the market. The chapter looks at the motivation behind these changes in corporate ownership and the pay-off to the breweries and their owners. The breweries spend a large amount of money promoting some of the lager beer as premium beer, and as consumers perceive it as high-quality beer, they are willing to pay a high price premium for the branded beer. We estimate the price premium for branded beer and relate it to the rapid change in the ownership structure of the beer market