Merger-Driven Listing Dynamics

We challenge the widespread interpretation of the post-1996 U.S. listing decline as evidence of lower net listing benefits. Our accounting for targets of public acquirers, who enjoy listing benefits under their parents' ownership, eliminates the post-1996 listing decline as well as U.S. listing-gap estimates. Moreover, after discovering that four-fifths of countries experience listing peaks followed by a `U.S.-style' decline, we find that the merger-channel plays a much weaker role internationally than in the U.S. This points to a unique ability of U.S. markets to attract and retain firms under public ownership.

Keywords: M&A, merger, public listing, listing peak, listing gap

JEL Classification: G15, G34

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Eckbo, B. Espen and Lithell, Markus, Merger-Driven Listing Dynamics (December 12, 2022). Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, Research Paper Series, No. 354758, European Corporate Governance Institute – Finance Working Paper No. 752/2021, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3547581 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3547581