We find that stricter merger control legislation increases abnormal announcement returns of targets in bank mergers by … 7 percentage points. Analyzing potential explanations for this result, we document an increase in the pre-merger … other banks. Other merger properties, including the size and risk profile of targets, the geographic overlap of merging …

I study a protectionist anti-takeover law introduced in 2014 that covers a subset of all firms in the economy. The law … decreased affected firms' likelihood of becoming the target of a merger or acquisition and had a negative impact on shareholder … takeover market by increasing the pay-for-performance sensitivity …

We quantify the impact of merger activity on productive efficiency. We develop and calibrate a dynamic industry … synergies, and indirectly through firms' incentives to enter or exit the industry. Merger activity increases average firm … productivity by 4.8%, of which 4.1% reflects the accumulation of synergies, and 0.7% the interaction between merger options and …

This paper empirically evaluates two possible sources of large takeover premiums: preemptive bidding and target … resistance. We develop an auction model that features costly sequential entry of bidders in takeover contests and that … in the period 1988-2006. We find that target resistance is the main determinant of takeover premiums in 74% of successful …

We argue that takeover protections decrease equity value and increase equity risk and stock returns by removing a … anti-takeover laws, both domestically and internationally. In line with our predictions, we find that distressed firms … experience a significant decrease in value and increase in returns and market betas after the passage of anti-takeover laws. Pro-takeover …