IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/mgtdec/v23y2002i7p399-415.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Beyond profitability: effects of acquisitions on technical efficiency in the Italian pasta industry

Author

Listed:
  • Luigi Benfratello

    (University of Turin and Ceris-CNR, Turin, Italy)

Abstract

Unlike traditional studies on the impact of ownership changes-which use either profitability measures or stock prices-this paper investigates the impact of acquisitions on acquired firms' technical efficiency. Using a panel of Italian firms in the pasta industry for the 1981-1997 period, I estimate a stochastic production frontier with exogenous factors affecting efficiency in a translog specification with non-neutral technical progress. The main result is that acquired firms experience, within the 6 years period following the acquisition, an increase in technical efficiency of the order of 10%. This result is statistically significant and proves to be robust with respect to the inclusion of size and calendar year effects as explanatory variables of firms' inefficiency. These findings contribute to the debate on the welfare gains of ownership changes by providing evidence that mergers and acquisitions lead to cost savings, due to the reduction of acquired firms' X-inefficiency. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Luigi Benfratello, 2002. "Beyond profitability: effects of acquisitions on technical efficiency in the Italian pasta industry," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(7), pages 399-415.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:mgtdec:v:23:y:2002:i:7:p:399-415
    DOI: 10.1002/mde.1088
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/mde.1088
    File Function: Link to full text; subscription required
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/mde.1088?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jalal D. Akhavein & Allen N. Berger & David B. Humphrey, "undated". "The Effects of Megamergers on Efficiency and Prices: Evidence from a Bank Profit Function," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 1997-09, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), revised 10 Dec 2019.
    2. Eckbo, B. Espen, 1983. "Horizontal mergers, collusion, and stockholder wealth," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1-4), pages 241-273, April.
    3. Fried, Harold O. & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Shelton S. (ed.), 1993. "The Measurement of Productive Efficiency: Techniques and Applications," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195072181.
    4. Bianco, Magda & Casavola, Paola, 1999. "Italian corporate governance:: Effects on financial structure and firm performance," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(4-6), pages 1057-1069, April.
    5. Resti, Andrea, 1998. "Regulation Can Foster Mergers, Can Mergers Foster Efficiency? The Italian Case," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 157-169, March.
    6. Battese, G E & Coelli, T J, 1995. "A Model for Technical Inefficiency Effects in a Stochastic Frontier Production Function for Panel Data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 325-332.
    7. Vennet, Rudi Vander, 1996. "The effect of mergers and acquisitions on the efficiency and profitability of EC credit institutions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(9), pages 1531-1558, November.
    8. Henry G. Manne, 1965. "Mergers and the Market for Corporate Control," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 73(2), pages 110-110.
    9. Lang, Gunter & Welzel, Peter, 1999. "Mergers among German Cooperative Banks: A Panel-Based Stochastic Frontier Analysis," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 273-286, December.
    10. Henry G. Manne, 1965. "Mergers and the Market for Corporate Control," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 73(4), pages 351-351.
    11. Dennis C. Mueller, 1969. "A Theory of Conglomerate Mergers," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 83(4), pages 643-659.
    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. Her-Jiun Sheu & Chi-Yih Yang, 2005. "Insider ownership and firm performance in Taiwan's electronics industry: a technical efficiency perspective," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(5), pages 307-318.
    2. Tianxu Jiang & Min Zhu, 2021. "The impact of innovation on companies’ cross-border mergers and acquisitions: evidence from China," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 969-991, June.

    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. Luigi Benfratello, 1999. "Beyond Profitability: Effects Of Acquisitions On Technical Efficiency And Productivity In The Italian Pasta Industry," CERIS Working Paper 199914, CNR-IRCrES Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth - Torino (TO) ITALY - former Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth - Moncalieri (TO) ITALY.
    2. Koetter Michael, 2008. "An Assessment of Bank Merger Success in Germany," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 9(2), pages 232-264, May.
    3. repec:bla:germec:v:9:y:2008:i::p:232-264 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Coccorese, Paolo & Ferri, Giovanni, 2020. "Are mergers among cooperative banks worth a dime? Evidence on efficiency effects of M&As in Italy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 147-164.
    5. Lars-Hendrik Röller & Johan Stennek & Frank Verboven, 2006. "Efficiency Gains from Mergers," Chapters, in: Fabienne IIzkovitz & Roderick Meiklejohn (ed.), European Merger Control, chapter 3, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Ana Lozano-Vivas & Subal Kumbhakar & Meryem Fethi & Mohamed Shaban, 2011. "Consolidation in the European banking industry: how effective is it?," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 247-261, December.
    7. Berger, Allen N. & Demsetz, Rebecca S. & Strahan, Philip E., 1999. "The consolidation of the financial services industry: Causes, consequences, and implications for the future," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 23(2-4), pages 135-194, February.
    8. Kamerbeek, S.P., 2009. "Merger Performance and Efficiencies in Horizontal Merger Policy in the US and the EU," MPRA Paper 18064, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. George Kyriazopoulos & Evangelos Drymbetas, 2015. "Long-term Performance of Acquirers Involved in Domestic Bank Ms&As in Europe," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 6(1), pages 56-67, January.
    10. Berger, Allen N., 2003. "The efficiency effects of a single market for financial services in Europe," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(3), pages 466-481, November.
    11. Jrisy Motis, 2007. "Mergers and Acquisitions Motives," Working Papers 0730, University of Crete, Department of Economics.
    12. Behr, Andreas & Heid, Frank, 2011. "The success of bank mergers revisited. An assessment based on a matching strategy," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 117-135, January.
    13. Gunther Tichy, 2001. "What Do We Know about Success and Failure of Mergers?," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 1(4), pages 347-394, December.
    14. Marcel Canoy & Machiel van Dijk & Jan Lemmen & Ruud de Mooij & Jürgen Weigand, 2001. "Competition and stability in banking," CPB Document 15.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    15. Mueller, Dennis C., 1996. "Lessons from the United States's antitrust history," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 415-445, June.
    16. Paolo Coccorese & Giovanni Ferri & Fabiola Spiniello, 2017. "Are mergers among cooperative banks worth a dime? Evidence on post-M&A efficiency in Italy," CERBE Working Papers wpC18, CERBE Center for Relationship Banking and Economics.
    17. Luigi Benfratello, 1999. "Determinants And Effects Of Mergers And Acquisitions: An Analysis Based On The Notifications To Antitrust Authorities," CERIS Working Paper 199915, CNR-IRCrES Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth - Torino (TO) ITALY - former Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth - Moncalieri (TO) ITALY.
    18. Sang V. Nguyen & Michael Ollinger, 2006. "Mergers and Acquisitions and Productivity in the U.S. Meat Products Industries: Evidence from the Micro Data," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 88(3), pages 606-616.
    19. Ly, Kim Cuong & Liu, Hong & Opong, Kwaku, 2017. "Who acquires whom among stand-alone commercial banks and bank holding company affiliates?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 144-158.
    20. Dennis Mueller, 1996. "Antimerger policy in the United States: History and lessons," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 23(3), pages 229-253, October.
    21. Ollinger, Michael & Nguyen, Sang V., 2003. "Empirical Evidence On The Motives For Mergers And Acquisitions In Eight Food Industries," 2003 Annual meeting, July 27-30, Montreal, Canada 22176, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).

    More about this item

    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:wly:mgtdec:v:23:y:2002:i:7:p:399-415. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/7976 .

    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.