IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finana/v76y2021ics1057521921001356.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effect of unionization on industry merger activity around negative economy-wide shocks

Author

Listed:
  • Akdogu, Evrim
  • Aktas, Nihat
  • Simsir, Serif Aziz

Abstract

We investigate the effect of labor unionization on industry-level takeover activity after negative economy-wide shocks. Focusing on the 2008 financial crisis, we find that merger intensities drop significantly during the post-crisis period, though the degree of unionization in an industry attenuates this negative effect. Our analyses of the 2001 and 1990 economic recessions lead to similar results. While unionization is known to deter M&A activity on average, our results indicate that in dire times, when firm survival is at risk, unions appear to resist relatively less to restructuring activities in the form of mergers.

Suggested Citation

  • Akdogu, Evrim & Aktas, Nihat & Simsir, Serif Aziz, 2021. "The effect of unionization on industry merger activity around negative economy-wide shocks," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finana:v:76:y:2021:i:c:s1057521921001356
    DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2021.101799
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057521921001356
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.irfa.2021.101799?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. Isil Erel & Yeejin Jang & Michael S. Weisbach, 2015. "Do Acquisitions Relieve Target Firms’ Financial Constraints?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(1), pages 289-328, February.
    2. Michael C. Jensen, 2010. "The Modern Industrial Revolution, Exit, and the Failure of Internal Control Systems," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 22(1), pages 43-58, January.
    3. John, Kose & Knyazeva, Anzhela & Knyazeva, Diana, 2015. "Employee rights and acquisitions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(1), pages 49-69.
    4. Murillo Campello & Erasmo Giambona & John R. Graham & Campbell R. Harvey, 2011. "Liquidity Management and Corporate Investment During a Financial Crisis," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(6), pages 1944-1979.
    5. Rosett, Joshua G., 1990. "Do union wealth concessions explain takeover premiums? : The evidence on contract wages," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 263-282, September.
    6. Andrei Shleifer & Lawrence H. Summers, 1988. "Breach of Trust in Hostile Takeovers," NBER Chapters, in: Corporate Takeovers: Causes and Consequences, pages 33-68, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Hui Tong & Shang-Jin Wei, 2008. "Real Effects of the Subprime Mortgage Crisis: Is it a Demand or a Finance Shock?," NBER Working Papers 14205, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Ahmad, Muhammad Farooq & Lambert, Thomas, 2019. "Collective bargaining and mergers and acquisitions activity around the world," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 21-44.
    9. Murillo Campello & Erasmo Giambona & John R. Graham & Campbell R. Harvey, 2011. "Access to Liquidity and Corporate Investment in Europe during the Financial Crisis," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 16(2), pages 323-346.
    10. Campello, Murillo & Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R., 2010. "The real effects of financial constraints: Evidence from a financial crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(3), pages 470-487, September.
    11. Gary Gorton & Matthias Kahl & Richard J. Rosen, 2009. "Eat or Be Eaten: A Theory of Mergers and Firm Size," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(3), pages 1291-1344, June.
    12. Alan J. Auerbach, 1988. "Corporate Takeovers: Causes and Consequences," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number auer88-1, March.
    13. Frederic S. Mishkin & Eugene N. White, 2002. "U.S. Stock Market Crashes and Their Aftermath: Implications for Monetary Policy," NBER Working Papers 8992, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. M. Pagano & P. F. Volpin, 2005. "Managers, Workers, and Corporate Control," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(2), pages 841-868, April.
    15. Boyan Jovanovic & Peter L. Rousseau, 2002. "The Q-Theory of Mergers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(2), pages 198-204, May.
    16. Todd C. Pulvino, 1998. "Do Asset Fire Sales Exist? An Empirical Investigation of Commercial Aircraft Transactions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 53(3), pages 939-978, June.
    17. Simpson, Marc W. & Grossmann, Axel, 2017. "The value of restrictive covenants in the changing bond market dynamics before and after the financial crisis," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 307-319.
    18. Julian Atanassov & E. Han Kim, 2009. "Labor and Corporate Governance: International Evidence from Restructuring Decisions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(1), pages 341-374, February.
    19. Masulis, Ronald W. & Simsir, Serif Aziz, 2018. "Deal Initiation in Mergers and Acquisitions," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 53(6), pages 2389-2430, December.
    20. Andrade, Gregor & Stafford, Erik, 2004. "Investigating the economic role of mergers," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 1-36, January.
    21. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    22. 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.
    23. Barry T. Hirsch & David A. MacPherson, 2003. "Union Membership and Coverage Database from the Current Population Survey: Note," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 56(2), pages 349-354, January.
    24. Garcia-Appendini, Emilia & Montoriol-Garriga, Judit, 2013. "Firms as liquidity providers: Evidence from the 2007–2008 financial crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(1), pages 272-291.
    25. Floyd, Eric & Li, Nan & Skinner, Douglas J., 2015. "Payout policy through the financial crisis: The growth of repurchases and the resilience of dividends," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(2), pages 299-316.
    26. Mulherin, J. Harold & Boone, Audra L., 2000. "Comparing acquisitions and divestitures," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 117-139, July.
    27. Chen, Huafeng Jason & Kacperczyk, Marcin & Ortiz-Molina, Hernán, 2011. "Labor Unions, Operating Flexibility, and the Cost of Equity," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(1), pages 25-58, February.
    28. K. J. Martijn Cremers & Vinay B. Nair & Kose John, 2009. "Takeovers and the Cross-Section of Returns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(4), pages 1409-1445, April.
    29. Bliss, Barbara A. & Cheng, Yingmei & Denis, David J., 2015. "Corporate payout, cash retention, and the supply of credit: Evidence from the 2008–2009 credit crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(3), pages 521-540.
    30. Duchin, Ran & Ozbas, Oguzhan & Sensoy, Berk A., 2010. "Costly external finance, corporate investment, and the subprime mortgage credit crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(3), pages 418-435, September.
    31. Karl V. Lins & Paolo Volpin & Hannes F. Wagner, 2013. "Does Family Control Matter? International Evidence from the 2008--2009 Financial Crisis," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 26(10), pages 2583-2619.
    32. Chen, Hsuan-Chi & Chou, Robin K. & Lu, Chien-Lin, 2018. "Saving for a rainy day: Evidence from the 2000 dot-com crash and the 2008 credit crisis," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 680-699.
    33. Kahle, Kathleen M. & Stulz, René M., 2013. "Access to capital, investment, and the financial crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(2), pages 280-299.
    34. Harford, Jarrad & Uysal, Vahap B., 2014. "Bond market access and investment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(2), pages 147-163.
    35. Harford, Jarrad, 2005. "What drives merger waves?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(3), pages 529-560, September.
    36. Dessaint, Olivier & Golubov, Andrey & Volpin, Paolo, 2017. "Employment protection and takeovers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(2), pages 369-388.
    37. Masulis, Ronald W. & Wang, Cong & Xie, Fei, 2020. "Employee-Manager Alliances and Shareholder Returns from Acquisitions," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 55(2), pages 473-516, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Chen, I-Ju & Chen, Yan-Shing & Chen, Sheng-Syan, 2018. "The strategic choice of payment method in corporate acquisitions: The role of collective bargaining against unionized workers," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 408-422.
    2. Ovtchinnikov, Alexei V., 2013. "Merger waves following industry deregulation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 51-76.
    3. Aktas, Nihat & Petmezas, Dimitris & Servaes, Henri & Karampatsas, Nikolaos, 2021. "Credit ratings and acquisitions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    4. Davide Dottori & Giacinto Micucci, 2018. "Corporate liquidity in Italy and its increase in the long recession," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 35(3), pages 981-1014, December.
    5. Chang, Chong-Chuo & Yang, Han, 2022. "The role of cash holdings during financial crises," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    6. Ahmad, Muhammad Farooq & Lambert, Thomas, 2019. "Collective bargaining and mergers and acquisitions activity around the world," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 21-44.
    7. Teresa Chu & In-Mu Haw & Simon S. M. Ho & Xu Zhang, 2020. "Labor protection, ownership concentration, and cost of equity capital: international evidence," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 54(4), pages 1351-1387, May.
    8. Sean Cleary & Ashrafee Hossain, 2020. "POSTCRISIS M&As AND THE IMPACT OF FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 43(2), pages 407-454, May.
    9. Dunn, Jessica Kay & Intintoli, Vincent J. & McNutt, Jamie John, 2015. "An examination of non-government-assisted US commercial bank mergers during the financial crisis," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 16-41.
    10. Mahdiyeh Entezarkheir & Saeed Moshiri, 2021. "Innovation spillover and merger decisions," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(5), pages 2419-2448, November.
    11. 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.
    12. Andrey Golubov & Dimitris Petmezas & Nickolaos G. Travlos, 2013. "Empirical mergers and acquisitions research: a review of methods, evidence and managerial implications," Chapters, in: Adrian R. Bell & Chris Brooks & Marcel Prokopczuk (ed.), Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Empirical Finance, chapter 12, pages 287-313, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Huang, Qianqian & Jiang, Feng & Wu, Szu-Yin (Jennifer), 2018. "Does short-maturity debt discipline managers? Evidence from cash-rich firms' acquisition decisions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 133-154.
    14. Aktas, Nihat & Baros, Aleksandra & Croci, Ettore, 2022. "Corporate divestitures around acquisitions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    15. Hege, Ulrich & Zhang, Yifei, 2022. "Activism Waves and the Market for Corporate Assets," TSE Working Papers 22-1397, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    16. Kariya, Ankitkumar, 2022. "Earnings-based borrowing constraints & corporate investments in 2007–2009 financial crisis," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    17. Mahdiyeh Entezarkheir & Saeed Moshiri, 2019. "Is innovation a factor in merger decisions? Evidence from a panel of US firms," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 57(5), pages 1783-1809, November.
    18. Amore, Mario Daniele & Epure, Mircea, 2021. "Riding out of a financial crisis: The joint effect of trust and corporate ownership," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 92-109.
    19. Heitor Almeida & Murillo Campello & Igor Cunha & Michael S. Weisbach, 2014. "Corporate Liquidity Management: A Conceptual Framework and Survey," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 135-162, December.
    20. Amess, Kevin & Banerji, Sanjay & Lampousis, Athanasios, 2015. "Corporate cash holdings: Causes and consequences," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 421-433.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mergers and acquisitions; Labor unions; 2008 financial crisis; Merger waves;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance

    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:finana:v:76:y:2021:i:c:s1057521921001356. 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/620166 .

    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.