Lina M. Cortés

Effects of Mergers and Acquisitions on Shareholder Wealth: Event Study for Latin American Airlines

This study analyzes the effect of changes in corporate control on the way shareholders benefit from the announcements of selling and buying airlines, thus contributing to the literature on mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in emerging markets. Using a methodology of event study, including GARCH and OLS models, we find evidence that some selling companies obtain abnormal returns that are statistically significant after the announcement of the M&A. However, when the merger is not strategic, the companies present statistically significant negative abnormal returns. The results are not conclusive when analyzing the effect on the value of the buying companies.

The productivity of top researchers: a semi-nonparametric approach

Research productivity distributions exhibit heavy tails because it is common for a few researchers to accumulate the majority of the top publications and their corresponding citations. Measurements of this productivity are very sensitive to the field being analyzed and the distribution used. In particular, distributions such as the lognormal distribution seem to systematically underestimate the productivity of the top researchers. In this article, we propose the use of a (log)semi-nonparametric distribution (log-SNP) that nests the lognormal and captures the heavy tail of the productivity distribution through the introduction of new parameters linked to high-order moments. The application uses scientific production data on 140,971 researchers who have produced 253,634 publications in 18 fields of knowledge (O’Boyle and Aguinis in Pers Psychol 65(1):79–119, 2012) and publications in the field of finance of 330 academic institutions (Borokhovich et al. in J Finance 50(5):1691–1717, 1995), and shows that the log-SNP distribution outperforms the lognormal and provides more accurate measures for the high quantiles of the productivity distribution.

Waves and Determinants in Mergers and Acquisitions: The Case of Latin America

ABSTRACT This article contributes to the current literature on mergers and acquisitions (M&As) by identifying the existence of waves and the determinants of M&A activity in the economies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. From a sample of 2,391 M&A announcements reported by Thomson One on these countries, applying the methodology proposed by Harford (2005), evidence of M&A waves is found for the periods 1995–2002 and 2003–2010, as reported for other regions in various international studies. After controlling for economic and business environment variables, as well as for profitability and book-to-market variables at the industry level, we find evidence that supports neoclassical theory as a main explanation for M&A activity but not for the misvaluation effect.

Mergers and Acquisitions in Latin America: Industrial Productivity and Corporate Governance

This paper examines the impact of industrial productivity on transnationals M&As from OECD countries towards Latin American countries in the period 1996 to 2010. It also analyzes the relationship between external mechanism of corporate governance and transnational M&As. For this purpose we use a gravitational model at the industry level. We find that industry productivity and higher standards of corporate governance in the country of origin promote transnational M&As activity. However, it is also found that higher levels of capital and technological productivity decreases transnational M&As activity.

Do News Improve Liquidity Through Improved Information or Visibility? Evidence from Emerging Markets

Abstract: Market microstructure models imply that informed trading reduces liquidity. We test for the effect of the frequency of new releases, as a proxy of information arrival, on liquidity in the Chilean stock market. We find that news release frequency is strongly related to improved liquidity. Those results appear for both negative a positive news days and are robust using four different measures of liquidity: bid-ask spread, Amihud measure and two versions of the Zero trading variable. We also find evidence consistent with visibility and information arrival interacting for enhancing liquidity.

Waves and determinants in the activity of Mergers and Acquisitions: The Case of Latin America

This paper contributes to the current literature of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) by studying the existence of waves and the determinants of M&A activity in the economies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. From a sample of 2,490 M&As announcements reported by Thomson One for these countries, and applying the methodology proposed by Harford (2005), evidence of M&A waves is found for the periods 1993-2002 and 2003-2010 as reported for other regions in various international studies. After controlling for economic and business environment variables, as well as for profitability and book-to-market variables at industry level, we find evidence in favor of the neoclassical theory as a main explanation for M&As, but not for the misvaluation effect. For this purpose, a Prais-Winsten data model with panel corrected standard errors (PCSE) is used, and the results are confirmed through a negative binomial panel data estimation.