This book focuses on one of the most important features of the contemporary Japanese economy; cross shareholding - or mutual shareholding - between corporations. The book analyses recent trends and the reasons behind these, and discusses the implications for the entire Japanese economic system...

We study the wealth effects of the mergers of privatized firms. Our sample entails 39 privatized firms that subsequently become targets of a takeover and 52 privatized firms that become bidders in mergers. Our results indicate that target firms experience a 12 percent increase in equity value at...