Publications

Prohibition (1920-1933) in the United States is generally viewed as a period with a defined beginning and end. When one factors state and local bans into the discussion, however, the issue is much more complicated. Local prohibitions began in the 1830s and state-level bans appeared in the 1850s. On the eve of federal Prohibition, thirty-two states already had statutory or constitutional prohibitions in place and fifteen more had local options ...

In April 1933, eight months prior to the end of Prohibition, states within the US gained the ability to legalize 3.2 percent alcohol beer. Proponents of legalization predicted that the brewer’s dray would bring jobs along with beer. We estimate that legalization brought around 81,000 jobs between April and June of 1933, 60,000 of which were created in April, when the nation emerged from the trough of the Great Depression. This suggests that ...

AB InBev is today's uncontested world leader of the beer market. It represents over 20% of global beer sales, with more than 450 million hectolitres a year flowing all around the world. Its Belgian predecessor, Interbrew, was a success story stemming from the 1971 secret merger of the country's two leading brewers: Artois and Piedboeuf. Based on first-hand material originating from company and private archives, as well as interviews with ...