Acquisitions, product variety, and distribution in the U.S. craft beer industry

Wesley Blundell and Kyle Wilson

Economic Inquiry, 2023, vol. 61, issue 4, 1053-1076

Abstract: Though antitrust authorities have historically focused on prices in merger analyses, there is now growing interest in the impact of mergers on non‐price outcomes. In this paper, we examine the effect of horizontal mergers on product variety in the U.S. beer industry. Our difference‐in‐differences analyses provide evidence that acquired firms increase variety available to consumers by expanding into new markets, while reducing the variety of products sold in their existing markets. Back of the envelope calculations suggest that in aggregate, these acquisitions have a net positive effect on product variety.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/ecin.13153

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:ecinqu:v:61:y:2023:i:4:p:1053-1076

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://ordering.onl ... s.aspx?ref=1465-7295

Access Statistics for this article

Economic Inquiry is currently edited by Tim Salmon

More articles in Economic Inquiry from Western Economic Association International Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().