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Mergers and capital flight in unionised oligopolies: Is there scope for a 'national champion' policy?

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Abstract

Many policy makers seem to prefer domestic alternatives to cross-broder mergers. Can such sentiments make sense? We contruct a model where cross-border mergers drive down union-set wages, where domestic mergers have larger non-labour cost synergies than international ones, and where policy evaluators care more about workers than capital owners. Apparently, the stage is set for national champion policies to be sensible. However, we also introduce the possibility of capital flight in the sense that a domestic firm can physically move its production out of the country. Restrictive cross-border merger policies can then seriously backfire, since they do not necessarily bring about a domestic merger - but capital flight instead.

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  • Kjell Erik Lommerud & Frode Meland & Odd Rune Straume, 2008. "Mergers and capital flight in unionised oligopolies: Is there scope for a 'national champion' policy?," NIPE Working Papers 10/2008, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    • Handle: RePEc:nip:nipewp:10/2008
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    Cited by:

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    2. Fernando Alexandre & Miguel Portela & Carla Sá, 2008. "Admission conditions and graduates' employability," NIPE Working Papers 16/2008, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    3. Kjell Lommerud & Trond Olsen & Odd Straume, 2010. "Company Taxation and Merger Incentives in International Oligopoly: on International Policy Coordination with Strategic Trade," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 161-186, June.
    4. Alcalde, Nuria & Powell, Ronan, 2022. "Government intervention in European mergers and acquisitions," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    5. Paulo Bastos & Natália P. Monteiro, 2011. "Managers and Wage Policies," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(4), pages 957-984, December.
    6. Domenico Buccella, 2011. "Labor unions and economic integration: A review," Económica, Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, vol. 0, pages 25-89, January-D.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cross-border merger; national champions; greenfield FDI; trade unions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions
    • F21 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Investment; Long-Term Capital Movements
    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets

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