Corporate Governance and Merger Activity in the U.S.: Making Sense of the 1980s and 1990s

Bengt Holmstrom and Steven Kaplan ()

No 8220, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper describes and considers explanations for changes in corporate governance and merger activity in the United States since 1980. Corporate governance in the 1980s was dominated by intense merger activity distinguished by the prevalence of leveraged buyouts (LBOs) and hostility. After a brief decline in the early 1990s, substantial merger activity resumed in the second half of the decade, while LBOs and hostility did not. Instead, internal corporate governance mechanisms appear to have played a larger role in the 1990s. We conclude by considering whether these changes and the movement toward shareholder value are likely to be permanent.

JEL-codes: G3 L2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cfn and nep-fin
Note: CF
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (75)

Published as Holmstrom, Bengt and Steven N. Kaplan. "Corporate Governance And Merger Activity In The United States: Making Sense Of The 1980s And 1990s," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2001, v15(2,Spring), 121-144.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w8220.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:8220

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w8220

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().