Knowledge On Tap: Measuring Sustainability Impacts of Ontario Craft Brewers
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Date
2023-08-08
Authors
Bosworth, Patrick
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Waterloo
Abstract
Small businesses compose 98% of all employer businesses and employ nearly two-thirds of the entire labour force in the Canadian economy. Small businesses, however, are often exempt from environmental regulation and corporate social responsibility mandates. As a result, small business impacts on host community economic, social, and environmental factors are often not adequately documented. The craft beer sector offers a suitable environment for further exploration: these businesses are small by definition, numerous, and their production methods are resource-intensive and inefficient. This research assembles a large panel dataset and causally explores how the presence of craft breweries impact the economic, social, and environmental performance of their host localities in Ontario. Findings indicate that the presence of a brewery in an Ontario community results in mixed sustainability outcomes: reductions in unemployment rates, nitrogen dioxide emissions, and PM2.5 emissions and increases in household income; while increasing sulfur dioxide emissions and decreasing per-capita populations of visible minorities and indigenous people. The analysis also shows that the results' magnitude and direction of effect varied depending on whether the brewery was located in an urban or rural area. This thesis presents a causal impact analysis for a growing small business segment at a provincial scale.
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Keywords
craft beer, craft brewing, craft breweries, Ontario craft beer, impact assessment, environmental impact assessment, difference in differences, DiD, econometrics, event study, staggered cohort event study, panel data, remoteness, rurality, causal inference, TWFE, gentrification, sustainability, CATT, interaction weighted estimator