In the last decade there has been a growing interest in applying evolutionary and ecological ideas from biology to the study of social organization. Such work, known as organizational ecology, focuses on the determinants of births growth, and deaths of organizations. This study is designed to explain the changes in the population of firms in the U.S. brewing industry over the past three centuries. The foundings, mergers, and disbandments of firms will be examined in terms of both the dynamics internal to the population of brewing firms (e.g., competition among firms) and environmental factors external to the industry (e.g., economic cycles). Special attention will be paid to the effects of size on the "liability of newness," the handicap that new firms operate under. The analysis will be carried out at the city, state, and nation-wide levels. This research will contribute to our understanding of the nature of long-term structural change in an organizational population.
