IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/randje/v50y2019i4p916-950.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Employment growth following takeovers

Author

Listed:
  • Karen Geurts
  • Johannes Van Biesebroeck

Abstract

We construct a comprehensive sample of takeovers in Belgium that shows they are remarkably common. Takeovers involve both small and large firms and, over a five‐year period, 17% of private sector employment. We estimate their impact on employment growth using a framework that explicitly takes into account that takeovers involve pairs of firms and that post‐merger outcomes are heterogeneous. The average merger temporarily reduces employment of the combined entity by −1.4%. Mergers likely to be motivated by market power show a stronger and permanent employment reduction of −14%, whereas those motivated by efficiency gains lead to employment expansions of +10%.

Suggested Citation

  • Karen Geurts & Johannes Van Biesebroeck, 2019. "Employment growth following takeovers," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 50(4), pages 916-950, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:randje:v:50:y:2019:i:4:p:916-950
    DOI: 10.1111/1756-2171.12300
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1756-2171.12300
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1756-2171.12300?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roger Bandick & Holger Görg, 2016. "Foreign acquisition, plant survival, and employment growth," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES AND HOST COUNTRY DEVELOPMENT Volume 53: World Scientific Studies in International Economics, chapter 7, pages 115-141, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. Arturs Kalnins & Luke Froeb & Steven Tschantz, 2017. "Can mergers increase output? Evidence from the lodging industry," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 48(1), pages 178-202, March.
    3. Charles Brown & James L. Medoff, 1988. "The Impact of Firm Acquisitions on Labor," NBER Chapters, in: Corporate Takeovers: Causes and Consequences, pages 9-32, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Joel Stiebale & Michaela Trax, 2011. "The effects of cross‐border M&As on the acquirers’ domestic performance: firm‐level evidence," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(3), pages 957-990, August.
    5. Guido W. Imbens & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2009. "Recent Developments in the Econometrics of Program Evaluation," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 5-86, March.
    6. McGuckin, Robert H. & Nguyen, Sang V., 2001. "The impact of ownership changes: a view from labor markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 739-762, April.
    7. Francine Lafontaine & Margaret Slade, 2007. "Vertical Integration and Firm Boundaries: The Evidence," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 45(3), pages 629-685, September.
    8. Conyon, Martin J. & Girma, Sourafel & Thompson, Steve & Wright, Peter W., 2002. "The impact of mergers and acquisitions on company employment in the United Kingdom," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 31-49, January.
    9. Seungwha (Andy) Chung & Harbir Singh & Kyungmook Lee, 2000. "Complementarity, status similarity and social capital as drivers of alliance formation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(1), pages 1-22, January.
    10. Dirk Burghardt & Marco Helm, 2015. "Firm growth in the course of mergers and acquisitions," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 889-904, April.
    11. 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.
    12. John Sutton, 1997. "Gibrat's Legacy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(1), pages 40-59, March.
    13. Gugler, Klaus & Mueller, Dennis C. & Yurtoglu, B. Burcin & Zulehner, Christine, 2003. "The effects of mergers: an international comparison," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 21(5), pages 625-653, May.
    14. Lehto, Eero & Böckerman, Petri, 2008. "Analysing the employment effects of mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 112-124, October.
    15. Iacus, Stefano M. & King, Gary & Porro, Giuseppe, 2012. "Causal Inference without Balance Checking: Coarsened Exact Matching," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 1-24, January.
    16. Guido W. Imbens, 2004. "Nonparametric Estimation of Average Treatment Effects Under Exogeneity: A Review," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(1), pages 4-29, February.
    17. Geurts, Karen & Van Biesebroeck, Johannes, 2016. "Firm creation and post-entry dynamics of de novo entrants," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 59-104.
    18. Jarrell, Gregg A & Brickley, James A & Netter, Jeffry M, 1988. "The Market for Corporate Control: The Empirical Evidence Since 1980," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 2(1), pages 49-68, Winter.
    19. Gugler, Klaus & Yurtoglu, B. Burcin, 2004. "The effects of mergers on company employment in the USA and Europe," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 481-502, April.
    20. Karen Geurts, 2016. "Longitudinal firm-level data: problems and solutions," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 425-445, March.
    21. Furlan, Benjamin, 2015. "Acquire and fire? Evidence from European mergers," Working Papers in Economics 2015-3, University of Salzburg.
    22. Jensen, Michael C, 1988. "Takeovers: Their Causes and Consequences," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 2(1), pages 21-48, Winter.
    23. Dutz, Mark A., 1989. "Horizontal mergers in declining industries : Theory and evidence," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 11-33, March.
    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. Dobbelaere, Sabien & McCormack, Grace & Prinz, Daniel & Sovago, Sandor, 2022. "Firm Consolidation and Labor Market Outcomes," IZA Discussion Papers 15724, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Jun Du & Sourafel Girma & Holger Görg & Ignat Stepanok, 2023. "Who wins and who loses from state subsidies?," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(3), pages 1007-1031, August.
    3. Sabien Dobbelaere & Grace McCormack & Daniel Prinz & Sándor Sóvágó, 2022. "Firm Consolidation and Labor Market Outcomes," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 22-085/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    4. Sabien Dobbelaere & Dániel Prinz & Grace McCormack & Sándor Sóvágó, 2022. "Firm consolidation and labor market outcomes," IFS Working Papers W22/45, Institute for Fiscal Studies.

    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. Harald Oberhofer, 2013. "Employment Effects of Acquisitions: Evidence from Acquired European Firms," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 42(3), pages 345-363, May.
    2. Benjamin Furlan & Harald Oberhofer & Hannes Winner, 2016. "A note on merger and acquisition evaluation," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 25(3), pages 447-455.
    3. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:30:y:2010:i:1:p:614-623 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Méndez Ortega, Carles, & Teruel, Mercedes, 2018. "To acquire or not to acquire: Mergers and Acquisitions in the Software Industry," Working Papers 2072/307043, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    5. Nuria Alcalde Fradejas & Inés Pérez-Soba Aguilar, 2007. "Influencia de las ofertas públicas de adquisición sobre el empleo de las empresas adquiridas: un análisis empírico," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 31(1), pages 5-42, January.
    6. Behar Alberto & Hodge James, 2008. "The Employment Effects of Mergers in a Declining Industry: The Case of South African Gold Mining," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-20, August.
    7. Margarita Carvalho & João Cerejeira, 2019. "Mergers and Acquisitions and wage effects in the Portuguese banking sector," NIPE Working Papers 07/2019, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    8. Amit Soni & Avinash Chandra & Sumati Varma, 2020. "Impact of M&As on Employment in the Indian Information Technology (IT) Industry," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 63(2), pages 311-329, June.
    9. 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.
    10. Oldford, Erin & Otchere, Isaac, 2016. "Are cross-border acquisitions enemy of labor? An examination of employment and productivity effects," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 40(PB), pages 438-455.
    11. Dirk Burghardt & Marco Helm, 2015. "Firm growth in the course of mergers and acquisitions," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 889-904, April.
    12. Siedschlag Iulia & Kaitila Ville & McQuinn John & Zhang Xiaoheng, 2014. "International Investment and Firm Performance: Empirical Evidence from Small Open Economies," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 234(6), pages 662-687, December.
    13. Joel Stiebale & Michaela Trax, 2011. "The effects of cross‐border M&As on the acquirers’ domestic performance: firm‐level evidence," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(3), pages 957-990, August.
    14. Petri Böckerman & Eero Lehto, 2006. "Enemy of Labour? Analysing the Employment Effects of Mergers and Acquisitions," Working Papers 221, Työn ja talouden tutkimus LABORE, The Labour Institute for Economic Research LABORE.
    15. Hiroyuki Taguchi & Taichi Yanagawa, 2013. "The dynamic impacts of M&A on employment in Japan," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 17(2), pages 511-533, May.
    16. Azimjon Kuvandikov & Andrew Pendleton & David Higgins, 2014. "Employment Change after Takeovers: The Role of Executive Ownership," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 52(2), pages 191-236, June.
    17. Kjell Erik Lommerud & Odd Rune Straume & Lars Sørgard, 2006. "National versus international mergers in unionized oligopoly," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(1), pages 212-233, March.
    18. Marinescu, Ioana & Ouss, Ivan & Pape, Louis-Daniel, 2021. "Wages, hires, and labor market concentration," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 506-605.
    19. Kokko Ari & Söderlund Bengt & Tingvall Patrik Gustavsson, 2014. "Redirecting International Trade: Contracts, Conflicts, and Institutions," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 234(6), pages 688-721, December.
    20. Yamada, Toshihiro & Taguchi, Hiroyuki, 2010. "The dynamic impacts of M&A on target firm’s labor in Japan: tentative dynamic panel estimation by GMM," MPRA Paper 64842, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Sumit K. Majumdar & Rabih Moussawi & Ulku Yaylacicegi, 2019. "Mergers and Wages in Digital Networks: a Public Interest Perspective," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 583-615, December.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • L23 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Organization of Production

    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:bla:randje:v:50:y:2019:i:4:p:916-950. 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: https://edirc.repec.org/data/randdus.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.