Mergers and Acquisitions →

The Unlikely Upside of Mergers: More Diverse Management Teams

Mergers shake up the status quo at companies and help women and people of color move up the ladder. Research by Letian Zhang mines data from 37,000 deals. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Dog Eat Dog: Measuring Network Effects Using a Digital Platform Merger

With heated debate over antitrust regulation of online platforms, this study finds that when a larger platform acquired its greatest competitor, users were not better off with a single platform compared with two competitors, despite marked efficiency improvements experienced by the acquiring platform.

Short-Termism, Shareholder Payouts, and Investment in the EU

Shareholder-driven “short-termism,” as evidenced by increasing payouts to shareholders, is said to impede long-term investment in EU public firms. But a deep dive into the data reveals a different story.

If Your Customers Don't Care What You Charge, What Should You Charge?

Consumer inertia is the tendency of some customers to buy a product, even when superior options exist. Alexander J. MacKay discusses how that habit affects competitive strategy and even regulatory oversight. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Political Influence and Merger Antitrust Reviews

This paper uses a large sample of United States mergers between 1998 and 2010 to study how political connections help firms obtain favorable antitrust regulatory outcomes for mergers. Given that antitrust regulators are subject to congressional oversight, the authors predict and find evidence that outcomes systematically favor firms that are constituents of politicians serving on judiciary committees.

US Antitrust Law and Policy in Historical Perspective

Since the late 19th century, American antitrust law and policy has responded to multiple changes: technological advances that have transformed business structures, political imperatives that have reformed regulations and informed prosecutorial discretion, and economic theories that have reshaped the boundaries of government interventions into the economy. Today, antitrust remains a contested field.

Trade Secrets Protection and Antitakeover Provisions

The study examines managers’ responses when facing an increased threat of their firm being acquired. Results add to our knowledge of the use of antitakeover provisions, showing that managers, particularly in high-innovation firms, increase certain provisions to protect long-term innovation output in the presence of elevated acquisition risk.