Did the MillerCoors Joint Venture Strengthen the Craft Beer Revolution?

Abstract

In this paper, we study the effect of the MillerCoors joint venture on craft brewers in the United States. Using a detailed scanner data set, which covers 1,739 grocery stores located in 33 cities, we track the assortment and the market share of craft beers that were offered from 2001 until 2011. After separating the markets into two groups, most affected and least affected by the merger in terms of concentration, and using the synthetic control method, we find that the number of craft beers and their market share significantly increased after the event. In particular, assortment increased by 27.5% and revenue shares by 1 percentage point in the treatment group, relative to the synthetic control group. This shows that smaller firms were able to enter into highly concentrated markets, and that entry was stronger in the markets that were most affected by the consolidation of large firms.