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Economic Growth, Globalisation and Beer Consumption
Author(s) -
Colen Liesbeth,
Swinnen Johan
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.157
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1477-9552
pISSN - 0021-857X
DOI - 10.1111/1477-9552.12128
Subject(s) - consumption (sociology) , per capita , globalization , economics , wine , china , alcohol consumption , convergence (economics) , autonomous consumption , agricultural economics , economic growth , alcohol , geography , macroeconomics , market economy , food science , environmental health , medicine , social science , population , chemistry , biochemistry , archaeology , sociology , debt
We analyse the evolution of beer consumption between countries and over time. Historically, there have been major changes in beer consumption in the world. In recent times, per capita consumption has decreased in traditional beer drinking countries while it increased strongly in emerging economies. Recently, China has overtaken the US as the largest beer economy. A quantitative empirical analysis studies the relationships among economic growth, globalisation and beer consumption. The relationship between income and beer consumption has an inverse U‐shape. Beer consumption initially increases with rising incomes; but at higher levels of income beer consumption falls. Increased globalisation has contributed to a convergence in alcohol consumption patterns across countries. In countries that were originally beer drinking countries, the share of beer in total alcohol consumption reduced, while this is not the case in countries which traditionally drank mostly wine or spirits.