IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/csc/cerisp/199914.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Beyond Profitability: Effects Of Acquisitions On Technical Efficiency And Productivity In The Italian Pasta Industry

Author

Abstract

Unlike traditional studies on the efficiency-enhancing effect of ownership changes – which use either profitability measures or stock prices – this paper measures the effect of acquisitions directly 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 factors affecting efficiency (i.e. the Battese and Coelli (1995) model), in a translog specification with non-neutral technical progress. The results show that acquired firms’ technical efficiency increases within the six years period following the acquisition, regardless of the nationality of the acquirer, and that a more productive use of resources, in particular labour, is the main source of this increase. However, the analysis beyond the six years period casts some doubts about the persistency of this increase.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:csc:cerisp:199914
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.byterfly.eu/islandora/object/librib:370177
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    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. Robin A. Prager & Timothy H. Hannan, 1998. "Do Substantial Horizontal Mergers Generate Significant Price Effects? Evidence From The Banking Industry," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 433-452, December.
    3. 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.
    4. K Amess, "undated". "Management Buyouts and Firm-Level Performance," SMF Discussion Paper Series 9702, University of Nottingham, School of Management & Finance.
    5. 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.
    6. Eckbo, B. Espen, 1983. "Horizontal mergers, collusion, and stockholder wealth," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1-4), pages 241-273, April.
    7. Peristiani, Stavros, 1997. "Do Mergers Improve the X-Efficiency and Scale Efficiency of U.S. Banks? Evidence from the 1980s," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 29(3), pages 326-337, August.
    8. Eckbo, B Espen & Wier, Peggy, 1985. "Antimerger Policy under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act: A Reexamination of the Market Power Hypothesis," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(1), pages 119-149, April.
    9. Giovanni Fraquelli & Fabrizio Erbetta, 1999. "Privatization in Italy: an analysis of factors productivity and technical efficiency," CERIS Working Paper 199905, CNR-IRCrES Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth - Torino (TO) ITALY - former Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth - Moncalieri (TO) ITALY.
    10. Armitage, Seth, 1995. "Event Study Methods and Evidence on Their Performance," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(1), pages 25-52, March.
    11. Caves, Richard E., 1989. "Mergers, takeovers, and economic efficiency : Foresight vs. hindsight," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 151-174, March.
    12. Scott, John T., 1989. "Purposive diversification as a motive for merger," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 35-47, March.
    13. Baldwin,John R. & Gorecki,Paul With contributions by-Name:Caves,Richard E. With contributions by-Name:Dunne,Tim With contributions by-Name:Haltiwanger,John, 1998. "The Dynamics of Industrial Competition," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521633574.
      • Baldwin,John R. & Gorecki,Paul With contributions by-Name:Caves,Richard E. With contributions by-Name:Dunne,Tim With contributions by-Name:Haltiwanger,John, 1995. "The Dynamics of Industrial Competition," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521465618.
    14. Aziz Boussofiane & Stephen Martin & David Parker, 1997. "The impact on technical efficiency of the UK privatization programme," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 297-310.
    15. Robert H. McGuckin & Sang V. Nguyen, 1995. "On Productivity and Plant Ownership Change: New Evidence from the Longitudinal Research Database," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 26(2), pages 257-276, Summer.
    16. 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.
    17. Fisher, Franklin M & McGowan, John J, 1983. "On the Misuse of Accounting Rates of Return to Infer Monopoly Profits," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(1), pages 82-97, March.
    18. Craig Gallet, 1996. "Mergers and market power in the US steel industry," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(4), pages 221-223.
    19. 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.
    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. 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.
    22. 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.
    23. Prager, Robin A & Hannan, Timothy H, 1998. "Do Substantial Horizontal Mergers Generate Significant Price Effects? Evidence from the Banking Industry," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 433-452, December.
    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Koetter Michael, 2008. "An Assessment of Bank Merger Success in Germany," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 9(2), pages 232-264, May.
    5. Pulak Mishra, 2018. "Are Mergers and Acquisitions Necessarily Anti-competitive? Empirical Evidence from India’s Manufacturing Sector," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 12(3), pages 276-307, August.
    6. Carletti, Elena & Ongena, Steven & Siedlarek, Jan-Peter & Spagnolo, Giancarlo, 2021. "The impacts of stricter merger legislation on bank mergers and acquisitions: Too-Big-To-Fail and competition," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    7. Amrita Nain & Yan Wang, 2018. "The Product Market Impact of Minority Stake Acquisitions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(2), pages 825-844, February.
    8. Bhattacharyya, Sugato & Nain, Amrita, 2011. "Horizontal acquisitions and buying power: A product market analysis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 97-115, January.
    9. Amel, Dean & Barnes, Colleen & Panetta, Fabio & Salleo, Carmelo, 2004. "Consolidation and efficiency in the financial sector: A review of the international evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(10), pages 2493-2519, October.
    10. Donald S. Siegel & Kenneth L. Simons & Tomas Lindstrom, 2009. "Ownership Change, Productivity, and Human Capital: New Evidence from Matched Employer-Employee Data," NBER Chapters, in: Producer Dynamics: New Evidence from Micro Data, pages 397-442, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. 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.
    12. Michael Koetter, 2008. "An Assessment of Bank Merger Success in Germany," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 9(2), pages 232-264, May.
    13. 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.
    14. Jason Karceski & Steven Ongena & David C. Smith, 2005. "The Impact of Bank Consolidation on Commercial Borrower Welfare," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(4), pages 2043-2082, August.
    15. 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.
    16. 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.
    17. Hammoudeh, Mosab & Nain, Amrita & Qian, Yiming, 2022. "The role of divestitures in horizontal mergers11We thank Jon Garfinkel, Jayant Kale, Kai Li, Gordon Philips, Anand Vijh, Thomas Wollmann, David Ravenscraft and participants at the 2016 American Financ," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    18. Allen N. Berger & Seth D. Bonime & Lawrence G. Goldberg & Lawrence J. White, 1999. "The dynamics of market entry: the effects of mergers and acquisitions on do novo entry and small business lending in the banking industry," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 1999-41, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    19. David R Merrell, 1999. "Productivity And Acquisitions In U.S. Coal Mining," Working Papers 99-17, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    20. Xavier Vives, 2001. "Restructuring Financial Regulation in the European Monetary Union," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 19(1), pages 57-82, February.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • L40 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - General
    • L66 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Food; Beverages; Cosmetics; Tobacco

    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:csc:cerisp:199914. 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: Anna Perin or Giancarlo Birello (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cerisit.html .

    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.