TY  - JOUR
AU  - Holmstrom,Bengt
AU  - Kaplan,Steven N.
TI  - Corporate Governance and Merger Activity in the U.S.: Making Sense of the 1980s and 1990s
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8220
PY  - 2001
Y2  - April 2001
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8220
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8220.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Bengt R. Holmstrom
Department of Economics
MIT
E52-383A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Tel: 617/253-0506
Fax: 617/253-1330
E-Mail: bengt@mit.edu

Steven N. Kaplan
Booth School of Business
The University of Chicago
5807 South Woodlawn Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
Tel: 773/702-4513
Fax: 773/702-0458
E-Mail: steven.kaplan@chicagobooth.edu
AB  - 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.
ER  -