IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/8105.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Mergers, Diversification and Financial Intermediation

Author

Listed:
  • Toxvaerd, Flavio

Abstract

This work presents an equilibrium model of diversification through merger formation. Due to moral hazard problems, poorly capitalized firms are credit rationed and may seek to alleviate the incentive problem (and thereby raise external funds) by either merging, employing a monitor or a combination of the two. Within this setting, the effects on merger activity of different kinds of capital tightening are studied. In particular, credit crunches, collateral squeezes and savings squeezes are analyzed. The main results are that diversifying merger activity increases during times of economic expansion and is positively related to aggregate economic activity, business incorporations and easing of access to credit (both interest and non-interest terms of credit). Furthermore, the model offers a rationale for diversification that is immune to the diversification neutrality result and furthermore, explains why diversified companies trade at a discount relative to their non-diversified counterparts.

Suggested Citation

  • Toxvaerd, Flavio, 2010. "Mergers, Diversification and Financial Intermediation," CEPR Discussion Papers 8105, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8105
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP8105
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

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

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1992. "Liquidation Values and Debt Capacity: A Market Equilibrium Approach," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(4), pages 1343-1366, September.
    2. Mitchell, Mark L. & Mulherin, J. Harold, 1996. "The impact of industry shocks on takeover and restructuring activity," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 193-229, June.
    3. Cerasi, Vittoria & Daltung, Sonja, 2001. "Diversification and Delegation in Firms," Working Paper Series 131, Sveriges Riksbank (Central Bank of Sweden).
    4. Toxvaerd, Flavio, 2008. "Strategic merger waves: A theory of musical chairs," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 140(1), pages 1-26, May.
    5. Vojislav Maksimovic & Gordon Phillips, 2002. "Do Conglomerate Firms Allocate Resources Inefficiently Across Industries? Theory and Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(2), pages 721-767, April.
    6. Rubinstein, Mark E, 1973. "A Mean-Variance Synthesis of Corporate Financial Theory," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 28(1), pages 167-181, March.
    7. Yakov Amihud & Baruch Lev, 1981. "Risk Reduction as a Managerial Motive for Conglomerate Mergers," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 12(2), pages 605-617, Autumn.
    8. Bengt Holmstrom & Jean Tirole, 1997. "Financial Intermediation, Loanable Funds, and The Real Sector," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(3), pages 663-691.
    9. Anil K Kashyap & Owen A. Lamont & Jeremy C. Stein, 1994. "Credit Conditions and the Cyclical Behavior of Inventories," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(3), pages 565-592.
    10. Laux, Christian, 2001. "Limited-Liability and Incentive Contracting with Multiple Projects," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 32(3), pages 514-526, Autumn.
    11. Higgins, Robert C & Schall, Lawrence D, 1975. "Corporate Bankruptcy and Conglomerate Merger," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 30(1), pages 93-113, March.
    12. Michael Gort, 1969. "An Economic Disturbance Theory of Mergers," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 83(4), pages 624-642.
    13. Douglas W. Diamond, 1984. "Financial Intermediation and Delegated Monitoring," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 51(3), pages 393-414.
    14. Roman Inderst & Holger M. Müller, 2003. "Internal versus External Financing: An Optimal Contracting Approach," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(3), pages 1033-1062, June.
    15. Giacinta Cestone & Chiara Fumagalli, 2005. "The Strategic Impact of Resource Flexibility in Business Groups," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 36(1), pages 193-214, Spring.
    16. John R. Graham & Michael L. Lemmon & Jack G. Wolf, 2002. "Does Corporate Diversification Destroy Value?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(2), pages 695-720, April.
    17. Lee, Li Way, 1977. "Co-Insurance and Conglomerate Merger," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(5), pages 1527-1537, December.
    18. Kashyap, Anil K & Stein, Jeremy C & Wilcox, David W, 1993. "Monetary Policy and Credit Conditions: Evidence from the Composition of External Finance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(1), pages 78-98, March.
    19. Cara S. Lown & Donald P. Morgan & Sonali Rohatgi, 2000. "Listening to loan officers: the impact of commercial credit standards on lending and output," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, issue Jul, pages 1-16.
    20. Fluck, Zsuzsanna & Lynch, Anthony W, 1999. "Why Do Firms Merge and Then Divest? A Theory of Financial Synergy," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 72(3), pages 319-346, July.
    21. Giacinta Cestone & Chiara Fumagalli, 2005. "The Strategic Impact of Resource Flexibility in Business Groups," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 36(4), pages 193-214, Winter.
    22. Lintner, John, 1971. "Expectations, Mergers and Equilibrium in Purely Competitive Securities Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 61(2), pages 101-111, May.
    23. Melnik, A & Pollatschek, M A, 1973. "Debt Capacity, Diversification and Conglomerate Mergers," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 28(5), pages 1163-1173, December.
    24. Melicher, Ronald W & Ledolter, Johannes & D'Antonio, Louis J, 1983. "A Time Series Analysis of Aggregate Merger Activity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 65(3), pages 423-430, August.
    25. Devra L. Golbe & Lawrence J. White, 1988. "A Time-Series Analysis of Mergers and Acquisitions in the U.S. Economy," NBER Chapters, in: Corporate Takeovers: Causes and Consequences, pages 265-310, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    26. Servaes, Henri, 1996. "The Value of Diversification during the Conglomerate Merger Wave," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(4), pages 1201-1225, September.
    27. Ralph L. Nelson, 1959. "Merger Movements in American Industry, 1895-1956," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number nels59-1.
    28. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:6:p:2685-2718 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Toxvaerd, Flavio, 2008. "Strategic merger waves: A theory of musical chairs," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 140(1), pages 1-26, May.

    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. Martynova, M. & Renneboog, L.D.R., 2005. "Takeover Waves : Triggers, Performance and Motives," Discussion Paper 2005-029, Tilburg University, Tilburg Law and Economic Center.
    2. Martynova, M., 2006. "The market for corporate control and corporate governance regulation in Europe," Other publications TiSEM 8651e281-4914-41f2-ac14-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    3. Martynova, Marina & Renneboog, Luc, 2008. "A century of corporate takeovers: What have we learned and where do we stand?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 2148-2177, October.
    4. Laeven, Luc & Levine, Ross, 2007. "Is there a diversification discount in financial conglomerates?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 331-367, August.
    5. Stefan Erdorf & Thomas Hartmann-Wendels & Nicolas Heinrichs & Michael Matz, 2013. "Corporate diversification and firm value: a survey of recent literature," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 27(2), pages 187-215, June.
    6. Toxvaerd, Flavio, 2008. "Strategic merger waves: A theory of musical chairs," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 140(1), pages 1-26, May.
    7. Christian Espinosa & Carlos Maquieira, 2010. "Diversificación y Desempeño en Sud América: Evidencia para Chile," Working Papers 10, Facultad de Economía y Empresa, Universidad Diego Portales.
    8. Christian Espinosa & Carlos Maquieira & Joao Paulo Vieito, 2012. "Does corporate diversication create value in south america? The chilean case," Working Papers 38, Facultad de Economía y Empresa, Universidad Diego Portales.
    9. Gönül Çolak, 2010. "Diversification, Refocusing and Firm Value," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 16(3), pages 422-448, June.
    10. Jiraporn, Pornsit & Kim, Young Sang & Davidson III, Wallace N., 2008. "Multiple directorships and corporate diversification," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 418-435, June.
    11. Löffler, Clemens & Pfeiffer, Thomas, 2013. "Centralized versus Decentralized External Financing, Winner Picking and Corporate Socialism," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79902, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    12. Khan, Abu & Hassan, M. Kabir & Maroney, Neal & Boujlil, Rhada & Ozkan, Bora, 2020. "Efficiency, diversification, and performance of US banks," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 101-117.
    13. Stein, Jeremy C., 2003. "Agency, information and corporate investment," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 2, pages 111-165, Elsevier.
    14. Almeida, Heitor & Campello, Murillo & Hackbarth, Dirk, 2011. "Liquidity mergers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(3), pages 526-558.
    15. Christian Espinosa & Juan Gorigoitía, 2012. "Stability of sovereign risk in the Eurozone through the Lyapunov Exponent," Working Papers 36, Facultad de Economía y Empresa, Universidad Diego Portales.
    16. 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.
    17. Xi He, 2012. "Two Sides of a Coin: Endogenous and Exogenous Effects of Corporate Diversification on Firm Value," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 12(4), pages 375-397, December.
    18. Paul Mizen & Cihan Yalcin, 2006. "Monetary Policy, Corporate Financial Composition and Real Activity," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 52(1), pages 177-213, March.
    19. Holger Mueller, 2016. "Reallocation of Capital and Labor within Firms," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 152(4), pages 289-303, October.
    20. Benjamin C. Ayers & Craig E. Lefanowicz & John R. Robinson, 2007. "Capital Gains Taxes and Acquisition Activity: Evidence of the Lock†in Effect," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(2), pages 315-344, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Capital tightening; Diversification; Diversification discount; Financial intermediation; Merger waves; Mergers;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • L16 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Industrial Organization and Macroeconomics; Macroeconomic Industrial Structure

    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:cpr:ceprdp:8105. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.org .

    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.