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Corporate Governance Convergence by Contract: Evidence from Cross-Border Mergers

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  • Arturo Bris
  • Christos Cabolis

Abstract

Cross-border mergers allow firms to alter the level of protection they provide to their investors, because target firms usually import the corporate governance system of the acquiring company. This article extends the existing literature by evaluating the effect of changes in corporate governance induced by cross-border mergers on industry value, instead of focusing on cross-country comparisons. We construct measures of the change in investor protection induced by cross-border mergers in a sample of 9,277 industry-country-year observations. We find that the Tobin's Q of an industry increases when firms within the industry are acquired by foreign firms coming from countries with better corporate governance. In addition, we show that acquisitions of firms in countries with less protective regimes--French and German legal origin--have a negative impact on the acquiror's value. Conversely, target industries benefit from acquisitions by firms from countries with better corporate governance--English and Scandinavian legal origin. Ours is among the first studies to document in a panel-data framework that improving investor protection creates value.

Suggested Citation

  • Arturo Bris & Christos Cabolis, 2002. "Corporate Governance Convergence by Contract: Evidence from Cross-Border Mergers," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm293, Yale School of Management, revised 01 Jan 2003.
    • Handle: RePEc:ysm:somwrk:ysm293
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    File URL: http://icfpub.som.yale.edu/publications/2654
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    Cited by:

    1. Buch, Claudia M. & DeLong, Gayle, 2008. "Do weak supervisory systems encourage bank risk-taking?," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 23-39, April.
    2. Marc Goergen, 2005. "Corporate Governance Convergence: Evidence From Takeover Regulation Reforms in Europe," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 21(2), pages 243-268, Summer.
    3. Joseph A. Clougherty & Klaus Gugler & Lars Sørgard, 2012. "Cross-Border Mergers and Domestic Wages: Integrating Positive 'Spillover' Effects and Negative 'Bargaining' Effects," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp136, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    4. Renneboog, L.D.R. & Szilagyi, P.G., 2006. "How do Mergers and Acquisitions Affect Bondholders in Europe? Evidence on the Impact and Spillover of Governance and Legal Standards," Other publications TiSEM 25af7145-7a86-4604-a6fd-4, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    5. Viral V. Acharya & Paolo F. Volpin, 2010. "Corporate Governance Externalities," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 14(1), pages 1-33.
    6. Talamo, Giuseppina, 2010. "Corporate governance and capital flows," MPRA Paper 35853, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2011.
    7. Lina M. Cortés & Iván A. Durán & Sandra Gaitán & Mateo Vasco, 2017. "Mergers and Acquisitions in Latin America: Industrial Productivity and Corporate Governance," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(10), pages 2179-2198, October.
    8. Dbouk, Wassim & Ismail, Ahmad, 2010. "Corporate governance and long run performance of seasoned equity issuers," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 20(4-5), pages 159-177, December.
    9. Chisari, Omar O. & Ferro, Gustavo, 2009. "Gobierno Corporativo: los problemas, estado actual de la discusión y un ejercicio de medición para Argentina [Corporate Governance: the problems, the current stage of the discussion and a measureme," MPRA Paper 15630, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Szilagyi, P.G., 2007. "Corporate governance and the agency costs of debt and outside equity," Other publications TiSEM 9520d40a-224f-43a8-9bf9-b, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.

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