Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test whether bank mergers are driven by equity overvaluation and management compensation incentives. Design/methodology/approach – To test whether equity mispricing drive bank mergers, the authors employ two alternative price-to-residual income...

Purpose – This study investigates the implications of the cumulative prospect theory in the context of US bank acquisitions, with particular emphasis on its probability weighting component. Specifically, we examine whether gambling attitudes matter in US bank takeover decisions. The evidence...