IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfinec/v140y2021i2p514-538.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A BIT goes a long way: Bilateral investment treaties and cross-border mergers

Author

Listed:
  • Bhagwat, Vineet
  • Brogaard, Jonathan
  • Julio, Brandon

Abstract

We examine whether bilateral investment treaties (BITs), an external governance mechanism, stimulate cross-border mergers by protecting the property rights of foreign acquirers. Exploiting the staggered adoption and bilateral nature of the treaties, we find that BITs have a large positive effect on cross-border mergers. The probability and dollar volume of mergers between two given countries more than doubles after the signing of a BIT. The increase is driven by deals flowing from developed economies to developing economies and is concentrated in target countries with medium levels of political risk. The results suggest BITs are effective in expanding the global market for corporate control, particularly in the developing world.

Suggested Citation

  • Bhagwat, Vineet & Brogaard, Jonathan & Julio, Brandon, 2021. "A BIT goes a long way: Bilateral investment treaties and cross-border mergers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(2), pages 514-538.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfinec:v:140:y:2021:i:2:p:514-538
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2020.12.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304405X20303457
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jfineco.2020.12.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lucas, Robert E, Jr, 1990. "Why Doesn't Capital Flow from Rich to Poor Countries?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(2), pages 92-96, May.
    2. Portes, Richard & Rey, Helene & Oh, Yonghyup, 2001. "Information and capital flows: The determinants of transactions in financial assets," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(4-6), pages 783-796, May.
    3. Portes, Richard & Rey, Helene, 2005. "The determinants of cross-border equity flows," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 269-296, March.
    4. William Hogan & Federico Sturzenegger (ed.), 2010. "The Natural Resources Trap: Private Investment without Public Commitment," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262013797, April.
    5. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2006. "Does Culture Affect Economic Outcomes?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(2), pages 23-48, Spring.
    6. Arturo Bris & Christos Cabolis, 2008. "The Value of Investor Protection: Firm Evidence from Cross-Border Mergers," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(2), pages 605-648, April.
    7. Albuquerque, Rui, 2003. "The composition of international capital flows: risk sharing through foreign direct investment," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 353-383, December.
    8. Eaton, Jonathan & Gersovitz, Mark, 1984. "A Theory of Expropriation and Deviations from Perfect Capital Mobility," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 94(373), pages 16-40, March.
    9. Lauge N. Skovgaard Poulsen & Emma Aisbett, 2011. "When the Claim Hits: Bilateral Investment Treaties and Bounded Rational Learning," Crawford School Research Papers 1105, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    10. Rossi, Stefano & Volpin, Paolo F., 2004. "Cross-country determinants of mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 277-304, November.
    11. Neumayer, Eric & Spess, Laura, 2005. "Do bilateral investment treaties increase foreign direct investment to developing countries?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(10), pages 1567-1585, October.
    12. Bekaert, Geert & Harvey, Campbell R. & Lumsdaine, Robin L., 2002. "Dating the integration of world equity markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 203-247, August.
    13. Douglas Staiger & James H. Stock, 1997. "Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(3), pages 557-586, May.
    14. Maurice Obstfeld & Kenneth Rogoff, 2001. "The Six Major Puzzles in International Macroeconomics: Is There a Common Cause?," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2000, Volume 15, pages 339-412, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Adam S. Chilton, 2016. "The political motivations of the United States’ bilateral investment treaty program," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(4), pages 614-642, July.
    16. Erasmo Giambona & John R Graham & Campbell R Harvey, 2017. "The management of political risk," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 48(4), pages 523-533, May.
    17. R. Gaston Gelos & Shang‐Jin Wei, 2005. "Transparency and International Portfolio Holdings," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(6), pages 2987-3020, December.
    18. Kaufmann, Daniel & Kraay, Aart & Mastruzzi, Massimo, 2007. "Governance Matters VI: Aggregate and Individual Governance Indicators, 1996-2006," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4280, The World Bank.
    19. Papaioannou, Elias, 2009. "What drives international financial flows? Politics, institutions and other determinants," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 269-281, March.
    20. Srividya Jandhyala & Robert J Weiner, 2014. "Institutions sans frontières: International agreements and foreign investment," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 45(6), pages 649-669, August.
    21. Buch, Claudia M, 2003. "Information or Regulation: What Drives the International Activities of Commercial Banks?," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 35(6), pages 851-869, December.
    22. Fotak, Veljko & Lee, Haekwon & Megginson, William, 2019. "A BIT of investor protection: How Bilateral Investment Treaties impact the terms of syndicated loans," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 138-155.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Eichler, Stefan & Nauerth, Jannik André, 2024. "Bilateral investment treaties and portfolio investment," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    2. Gopalakrishnan, Balagopal & Jacob, Joshy & Srivastava, Jagriti, 2022. "Fishing in muddy waters: Mergers and acquisitions during uncertainty," IIMA Working Papers WP 2022-09-02, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    3. Federico Carril-Caccia & Juliette Milgram Baleix & Jordi Paniagua, 2022. "Does terrorism affect greenfield investment? A structural gravity approach," ThE Papers 22/06, Department of Economic Theory and Economic History of the University of Granada..
    4. Eichler, Stefan & Nauerth, Jannik A., 2024. "Bilateral investment treaties and portfolio investment," CEPIE Working Papers 01/24, Technische Universität Dresden, Center of Public and International Economics (CEPIE).
    5. Gómez-Mera, Laura & Varela, Gonzalo, 2024. "Emerging market multinationals and international investment agreements," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(3).
    6. Radovan Kastratović & Predrag Bjelić, 2023. "The Effectiveness Of Bilateral Investment Treaties In Attracting Foreign Direct Investment: The Case Of Serbia," Economic Annals, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Belgrade, vol. 68(237), pages 37-68, April – J.
    7. Peter Egger & Alain Pirotte & Catharine Titi, 2023. "International investment agreements and foreign direct investment: A survey," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(6), pages 1524-1565, June.
    8. Wang, Yichen & Hu, Jun & Chen, Jia, 2023. "Does Fintech facilitate cross-border M&As? Evidence from Chinese A-share listed firms," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    9. Huang, Chenghao & Jin, Zhi & Tian, Siyang & Wu, Eliza, 2023. "The real effects of corruption on M&A flows: Evidence from China's anti-corruption campaign," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    10. Muhammad Farooq Ahmad & Nihat Aktas & Douglas Cumming & Guosong Xu, 2024. "Board reforms and M&A performance: international evidence," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 55(5), pages 616-637, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Papaioannou, Elias, 2009. "What drives international financial flows? Politics, institutions and other determinants," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 269-281, March.
    2. Daude, Christian & Fratzscher, Marcel, 2008. "The pecking order of cross-border investment," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 94-119, January.
    3. Martin Gassebner & Pierre-Guillaume Méon, 2010. "Where do Creditor Rights Matter? Creditor Rights, Political Constraints, and Cross-Border M&A Activity," Working Papers CEB 10-019.RS, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    4. Okawa, Yohei & van Wincoop, Eric, 2012. "Gravity in International Finance," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 205-215.
    5. Okada, Keisuke, 2013. "The interaction effects of financial openness and institutions on international capital flows," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 131-143.
    6. Kalemli-Ozcan, Sebnem & Papaioannou, Elias & Peydró, José-Luis, 2010. "What lies beneath the euro's effect on financial integration? Currency risk, legal harmonization, or trade?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 75-88, May.
    7. Hahm, Joon-Ho & Shin, Kwanho, 2009. "Complementarity among international asset holdings," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 37-55, March.
    8. Eichler, Stefan & Littke, Helge C.N. & Tonzer, Lena, 2017. "Central bank transparency and cross-border banking," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 1-30.
    9. Li, Chang & Yang, Lianxing, 2020. "Import to invest: Impact of cultural goods on cross-border mergers and acquisitions," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 354-364.
    10. Herrmann, Sabine & Kleinert, Jörn, 2014. "Lucas paradox and allocation puzzle: Is the euro area different?," Discussion Papers 06/2014, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    11. Arribas Ivan & Perez Francisco & Tortosa-Ausina Emili, 2010. "The Determinants of International Financial Integration Revisited: The Role of Networks and Geographic Neutrality," Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 15(1), pages 1-55, December.
    12. António Afonso & José Alves & Krzysztof Beck & Karen Jackson, 2022. "Financial, Institutional and Macroeconomic Determinants of Cross-Country Portfolio Equity Flows," Working Papers REM 2022/0235, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, REM, Universidade de Lisboa.
    13. Xie, En & Reddy, K.S. & Liang, Jie, 2017. "Country-specific determinants of cross-border mergers and acquisitions: A comprehensive review and future research directions," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 127-183.
    14. Fidora, Michael & Fratzscher, Marcel & Thimann, Christian, 2007. "Home bias in global bond and equity markets: The role of real exchange rate volatility," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 631-655, June.
    15. Huang, Rocco R., 2007. "Distance and trade: Disentangling unfamiliarity effects and transport cost effects," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 161-181, January.
    16. Akhtaruzzaman, M. & Berg, Nathan & Hajzler, Christopher, 2017. "Expropriation risk and FDI in developing countries: Does return of capital dominate return on capital?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 84-107.
    17. Mishra, Anil V., 2007. "International investment patterns: Evidence using a new dataset," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 342-360, June.
    18. Giofré, Maela, 2013. "Investor protection rights and foreign investment," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 506-526.
    19. Mercado, Rogelio V., 2023. "Bilateral capital flows: Transaction patterns and gravity," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 39-54.
    20. Ansgar Belke & Clemens Domnick, 2021. "Trade and capital flows: Substitutes or complements? An empirical investigation," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 573-589, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cross-border acquisitions; Bilateral investment treaties; Property rights; Political risk;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • K22 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Business and Securities Law
    • F33 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - International Monetary Arrangements and Institutions

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jfinec:v:140:y:2021:i:2:p:514-538. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505576 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.