Has Anheuser-Busch Let the Steam Out of Craft Beer? The Economics of Acquiring Craft Brewers

The craft beer segment in the U.S. has grown from a meager 20 brewers in the 1980s to over 7,000 today and is approaching a 15% market share. Macrobrewers initially responded by internal product differentiation but then began acquiring craft brewers, provoking concerns about the continuing viability of independent, local brewers. We analyze the economic consequences of the most prominent of these acquisitions: the Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI) purchase of Goose Island in 2011. Using variation in pre-acquisition ABI market share to account for the effects of the distribution tier in the beer industry and the influence of macrobrewers on the distribution tier, we analyze price and quantity effects in the Midwest and mid-Atlantic states as well as the local region where Goose Island was founded. We also evaluate the effect on varieties of beer available to consumers in off-premise accounts to analyze the effect of ABI’s acquisition on independent, local breweries who must jockey for shelf space with macrobrewers. By the usual metrics of merger retrospectives, we find large gains in sales for craft brewers as a result of ABI’s entry by acquisition, possibly the result of marketing spillovers attracting new consumers to craft beer. We also find large negative effects on product variety, indicating greater difficulty for craft brewers to gain shelf placement in off-premise accounts. We find that these effects are most pronounced in Goose Island’s regional birthplace of Illinois

Childhood trauma and dysregulation of multiple biological stress systems in adulthood:Results from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA)

Background: Childhood trauma (CT) is a risk factor for depressive and anxiety disorders. Although dysregulated biological stress systems may underlie the enduring effect of CT, the relation between CT and separate and cumulative activity of the major stress systems, namely, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis, the immune-inflammatory system, and the autonomic nervous system (ANS), remains inconclusive. Methods: In the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA, n = 2778), we determined whether self-reported CT (as assessed by the Childhood Trauma Interview) was associated with separate and cumulative markers of the HPA-axis (cortisol awakening response, evening cortisol, dexamethasone suppression test cortisol), the immune-inflammatory system (C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α), and the ANS (heart rate, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, pre-ejection period) in adulthood. Results: Almost all individuals with CT (n = 1330) had either current or remitted depressive and/or anxiety disorder (88.6%). Total-sample analyses showed little evidence for CT being significantly associated with the separate or cumulative stress systems’ activity in adulthood. These findings were true for individuals with and without depressive and/or anxiety disorders. To maximize contrast, individuals with severe CT were compared to healthy controls without CT. This yielded slight, but significantly higher levels of cortisol awakening response (AUCg, β =.088, p =.007; AUCi, β =.084, p =.010), cumulative HPA-axis markers (β =.115, p =.001), C-reactive protein (β =.055, p =.032), interleukin-6 (β =.053, p =.038), cumulative inflammation (β =.060, p =.020), and cumulative markers across all systems (β =.125, p =.0003) for those with severe CT, partially explained by higher rates of smoking, body mass index, and chronic diseases. Conclusion: While our findings do not provide conclusive evidence on CT directly dysregulating stress systems, individuals with severe CT showed slight indications of dysregulations, partially explained by an unhealthy lifestyle and poorer health

Solving variational inequalities defined on a domain with infinitely many linear constraints

We study a variational inequality problem whose domain is defined by infinitely many linear inequalities. A discretization method and an analytic center based inexact cutting plane method are proposed. Under proper assumptions, the convergence results for both methods are given. We also provide numerical examples to illustrate the proposed method

When I relive a positive me: Vivid autobiographical memories facilitate autonoetic brain activation and enhance mood

Autobiographical memory is vital for our well-being and therefore used in therapeutic interventions. However, not much is known about the (neural) processes by which reliving memories can have beneficial effects. This study investigates what brain activation patterns and memory characteristics facilitate the effectiveness of reliving positive autobiographical memories for mood and sense of self. Particularly, the role of vividness and autonoetic consciousness is studied. Participants (N= 47) with a wide range of trait self-esteem relived neutral and positive memories while their bold responses, experienced vividness of the memory, mood, and state self-esteem were recorded. More vivid memories related to better mood and activation in amygdala, hippocampus and insula,indicative of increased awareness of oneself (i.e., prereflective aspect of autonoetic con-sciousness). Lower vividness was associated with increased activation in the occipital lobe, PCC, and precuneus, indicative of a more distant mode of reliving. While individuals with lower trait self-esteem increased in state self-esteem, they showed less deacti-vation of the lateral occipital cortex during positive memories. In sum, the vividness of the memory seemingly distinguished a more immersed and more distant manner of memory reliving. In particular, when reliving positive memories higher vividness facilitated increased prereflective autonoetic consciousness, which likely is instrumental in boosting mood