Johan Swinnen

Mara P. Squicciarini

This book, written by global experts, provides a comprehensive and topical analysis on the economics of chocolate. While the main approach is economic analysis, there are important contributions from other disciplines, including psychology, history, government, nutrition, and geography. The chapters are organized around several themes, including the history of cocoa and chocolate — from cocoa drinks in the Maya empire to the growing sales of Belgian chocolates in China; how governments have used cocoa and chocolate as a source of tax revenue and have regulated chocolate (and defined it by law) to protect consumers' health from fraud and industries from competition; how the poor cocoa producers in developing countries are linked through trade and multinational companies with rich consumers in industrialized countries; and how the rise of consumption in emerging markets (China, India, and Africa) is causing a major boom in global demand and prices, and a potential shortage of the world's chocolate.

The Economics of Chocolate

Christian Garavaglia

This book investigates the birth and evolution of craft breweries around the world. Microbrewery, brewpub, artisanal brewery, henceforth craft brewery, are terms referred to a new kind of production in the brewing industry contraposed to the mass production of beer, which has started and diffused in almost all industrialized countries in the last decades. This project provides an explanation of the entrepreneurial dynamics behind these new firms from an economic perspective. The product standardization of large producers, the emergence of a new more sophisticated demand and set of consumers, the effect of contagion, and technology aspects are analyzed as the main determinants behind this ‘revolution’. The worldwide perspective makes the project distinctive, presenting cases from many relevant countries, including the USA, Australia, Japan, China, UK, Belgium, Italy and many other EU countries.

A Revolution in the Global Beer Industry

Economic Perspectives on Craft Beer

Seneshaw Tamru

Bart Minten

Exchange rate policies can have important implications on incentives for export agriculture. However, their effects are often not well understood. We study the issue of foreign exchange controls and pricing in the value chain for Ethiopia’s coffee - its most important export crop. Relying on unique pricing and cost data, we find that coffee exporters are willing to incur losses during exporting by offering high prices for coffee locally in order to access scarce foreign exchange. The losses in export markets are then more than recovered in importing, indicating rents - import parity prices are significantly lower than the prices charged for imported goods, so that profits on imports are much higher than the losses incurred in exporting. We further show that the high coffee wholesale prices are transmitted to farmers, so that they benefit from the rents downstream. These results suggest that a better exchange rate alignment to reduce the overvaluation of the local currency in this case would have a lower impact on export crop producer prices than typically is anticipated.

Trade, value chains, and rent distribution with foreign exchange controls: Coffee exports in Ethiopia

Maandag 22 mei 1967: een aanslag met drie brandbommen tijdens de Amerikaanse veertiendaagse in de Brusselse À l'Innovation kent 323 doden en honderden gewonden. Bij deze apocalyptische brand verliest de dertienjarige Hervé zijn beide ouders. De ramp verandert voorgoed zijn leven en verbindt zijn lot aan Delphine, een militante actievoerster uit het hart van de Brusselse Commune Ché. Ze heeft haar wortels in de studentenprotesten en woont op libertijnse wijze samen met geradicaliseerde actievoerders. Happening is een sleutelroman die het fascinerende verhaal vertelt van een groep bezielde jongeren die uit verontwaardiging over de steun van het Westen jegens de oorlog in Vietnam en de onrechtvaardigheden van de kapitalistische samenleving tot geweld overgingen en met bommen de strijd aanbonden tegen de Belgische staat. Ze noemden hun vorm van actievoeren 'ein großes Happening'.

De aanslag in de Inno

Happening

Welke film maakt uw leven de moeite waard? Wat betekent voor u filmische hartstocht? Kunt u over schoonheid op het witte doek ook nog iets filosofisch vertellen, iets over (im)moraliteit, waarheid/ werkelijkheid en/of tijd/ruimte? Wat zijn voor u de filosofische kenmerken van overtuigend filmisch vertellen? Hoe kunnen klassiek en modern denken in film samengaan? Kan de hedendaagse film een remedie zijn tegen het nihilisme, het ontbreken aan geloof in deze wereld? Vindt u troost bij het witte doek? Deze en andere vragen legde filmwetenschapper Johan Swinnen voor aan zeven bekende hedendaagse filosofen: Hubert Dethier, Willem Elias, Anna Luyten, Ann Meskens, Jean Paul Van Bendegem, Antoon Van den Braembussche en Etienne Vermeersch.

Reflecties. Film als filosofie / druk 1

Luc Deneulin

Commemorating the 80th birthday of revolutionary Belgian animation filmmaker Raoul Servais, this historical and autobiographical account surveys the major themes of the artist's life and works. Including a thorough interview with Servais himself, this richly illustrated trilingual book--in English, French, and Dutch--provides fresh insights into Servais’s works and gives a new impetus to the reception of this extraordinary artist. Engaging and informative, this account is sure to interest established artists and students alike.

Raoul Servais: Le Magicien De'Ostende: Engagement - Défi - Reconnaissance

Devin Briski

From prompting a transition from hunter-gatherer, to an agrarian lifestyle in ancient Mesopotamia, to bankrolling Britain's imperialist conquests, strategic taxation and the regulation of beer has played a pivotal role throughout history. Beeronomics: How Beer Explains the World tells these stories, and many others, whilst also exploring the key innovations that propelled the industrialization and consolidation of the beer market. At the same time when mega-mergers in the brewing industry are creating huge transnationals selling their beer across the globe, the craft beer movement in America and Europe has brought the rich history of ancient brewing techniques to the forefront in recent years. But less talked about is the economic influence of this beverage on the world and the myriad ways it has shaped the course of history. Beeronomics covers world history through the lens of beer, exploring the common role that beer taxation has played throughout and providing context for recognizable brands and consumer trends and tastes. Beeronomics examines key developments that have moved the brewing industry forward. Its most ubiquitous ingredient, hops, was used by the Hanseatic League to establish the export dominance of Hamburg and Bremen in the sixteenth century. During the late nineteenth century, bottom-fermentation led to the spread of industrial lager beer. Industrial innovations in bottling, refrigeration, and TV advertising paved the way for the consolidation and market dominance of major macrobreweries like Anheuser Busch in America and Artois Brewery in Belgium during the twentieth century. We're now in the era of global integration -- one multinational AB InBev, claims 46% of all beer profits -- but there's a counterrevolution afoot of small, independent craft breweries in America, Belgium and around the world. Beeronomics surveys these trends, giving context to why you see which brands and styles on shelves at your local supermarket or on tap at the nearby pub.

How Beer Explains the World

Beeronomics

Bièronomics couvre l’histoire mondiale à travers le prisme de la bière, examinant le rôle qu’a joué la taxation de la bière et dessinant le paysage dans lequel s’inscrivent des marques notables aussi bien que les tendances et goûts des consommateurs. On parle peu de l’influence exercée par la bière sur le monde et de la myriade de façons dont elle a façonné son cours. Bièronomics couvre l’histoire mondiale à travers le prisme de la bière, dessinant le paysage dans lequel s’inscrivent marques célèbres, tendances et goûts des consommateurs. L’ouvrage se penche sur les événements charnières qui ont fait évoluer le secteur brassicole. Son ingrédient majeur, le houblon, fut utilisé par la Ligue hanséatique pour asseoir sa domination des exportations à Hambourg et à Brême au XVIe siècle. À la fin du XIXe siècle, la fermentation basse donna le jour à la lager industrielle. Au fil du XXe siècle, les innovations techniques en matière d’embouteillage, de réfrigération et de publicité télévisée ouvrirent la voie à la consolidation et à l’accaparement du marché par des macrobrasseries telles qu’Anheuser-Busch aux États-Unis et Artois en Belgique. Nous sommes à présent entrés dans l’âge de l’intégration mondiale – la multinationale AB InBev empoche à elle seule 46 % des profits brassicoles mondiaux –, mais une contrerévolution est en marche, fomentée par de petites brasseries artisanales indépendantes, tant aux États-Unis et en Belgique qu’ailleurs de par le monde. Bièronomics dévoile ces tendances, révélant pourquoi vous trouvez telles marques et sortes de bière dans les rayons de votre supermarché ou au bar du coin.

L'histoire du monde à travers la bière

Bièronomics

Pinhas Zusman

Gordon C. Rausser

This book analyzes the links between political economics, governance structures and the distribution of political power in economic policy making. The book theoretically explains and empirically quantifies these interactions. The analysis includes both public good policies and redistributive policies. Part I of the book presents the conceptual foundations of political-economic bargaining and interest group analysis. After presenting the underlying theory, Part II of the book examines ideology, prescription and political power coefficients; Part III analyzes a number of specific structures; and Part IV presents a framework for political econometrics with a number of empirical applications and testable hypotheses. In all four parts of the book, four analytical dimensions of public policy are distinguished: governance structures, political economy, mechanism design and incidence.

Johan Swinnen

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