Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references

History. A brief economic history of beer / Eline Poelmans and Johan F.M. Swinnen -- Beer production, profits, and public authorities in the Renaissance / Richard W. Unger -- Standards and international trade integration: a historical review of the German 'Reinheitsgebot' / Frank Van Tongeren -- Brewing nation: war, taxes, and the growth of the British beer industry in the 18th and 19th centuries / John V.C. Nye -- Belgian beers: where history meets globalization / Damiaan Persyn, Johan F.M. Swinnen and Stijn Vanormelingen -- Consumption. Cold comfort in hard times: do people drink more beer during recessions? / Donald G. Freeman -- Beer drinking nations: the determinants of global beer consumption / Liesbeth Colen and Johan F.M. Swinnen -- Recent economic developments in the import and craft segments of the US brewing industry / Carol H. Tremblay and Victor J. Tremblay -- Culture and beer preferences / Jill J. McCluskey and Sanatan Shreay -- Industrial organization. Competition policy towards brewing: rational response to market power or unwarranted Interference in efficient markets? / Margaret E. Slade -- Developments in US merger policy: the beer industry as lens / Kenneth G. Elzinga and Anthony W. Swisher -- The growth of television and the decline of local beer / Lisa M. George -- Determinants of the concentration in beer markets in Germany and the United States: 1950 - 2005 / William James Adams -- How the east was won: the foreign take-over of the eastern European beer market / Johan F.M. Swinnen and Kristine Van Herck -- The new beer markets. Beer battles in China: the struggle over the world's largest beer market / Junfei Bai, Jikun Huang, Scott Rozelle and Matt Boswell -- From vodka to Baltika: a perfect storm in the Russian beer market / Koen Deconinck and Johan F.M. Swinnen -- Opening the beer gates: how liberalization caused growth in India's beer market / Abhimanyu Arora, Anjor Bhaskar, Bart Minten and Anneleen Vandeplas -- Conclusion. Beeronomics: the economics of beer and brewing / Johan F.M. Swinnen and Thijs Vandemoortele