"Our" tropical lands: reinventions of California and Florida after the Civil War -- A climate for health and wealth: the lure of tropical leisure on American soil -- The fruits of labor: boosterist visions of republican renewal and semi-tropical agriculture -- Desert and swamp: the conquest of...

We examine the relation between venture capital (VC) investments and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity around the world. We find evidence of a strong positive association between VC investments and lagged M&A activity, consistent with the hypothesis that an active M&A market provides...