Ideologues are quick to explain the current financial meltdown: it's the markets, stupid. Economists agree but add: it's politics too, stupid. Ideologues agree but counter: first and foremost it's capitalism, stupid. Economists agree but reply: §$%&?!, stupid. This is where this short paper...

This paper examines the effect of mergers on the performance of banks. We use a unique and exhaustive panel data set of mergers of Austrian banks covering the period from 1996 to 2002. A probit selection equation is formulated to explain the adoption of a merger strategy. We use various matching...