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Too much to learn? The (un)intended consequences of RegTech development on mergers and acquisitions

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  • Gu, Ming
  • Li, Dongxu
  • Ni, Xiaoran

Abstract

Regulatory and technological (RegTech) developments have been changing the nature of financial markets in recent decades. This paper documents the real effects of RegTech in the market of corporate control. Exploiting the staggered implementation of the EDGAR system from 1993 to 1996 as quasi-exogenous RegTech shocks, we find that RegTech developments reduce firm acquisitiveness, especially for growth firms, solo-bidder deals, and stock-based acquisitions. Our main findings still hold when employing the stack-cohort approach to address concerns regarding biased staggered DiD estimators. In addition, EDGAR implementation discourages informed trading and lowers the acquirers' announcement returns. Overall, our deal-level analyses show how RegTech development matters for firm investment decisions with more granularities. Our paper differs from but complements recent empirical evidence that EDGAR implementation increases the level of overall investment, suggesting that dampened managerial learning induces firms to switch from highly risky and uncertain projects (M&As) to routine projects with less uncertainty (capital expenditures).

Suggested Citation

  • Gu, Ming & Li, Dongxu & Ni, Xiaoran, 2022. "Too much to learn? The (un)intended consequences of RegTech development on mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:76:y:2022:i:c:s0929119922001195
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2022.102276
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Regulation technology (RegTech); EDGAR; Mergers and acquisitions (M&As); Firm acquisitiveness; Price efficiency;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies
    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation

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