The Effects of Mergers and Acquisitions on Employment

This project analyzes workers’ trajectories around mergers and acquisitions (M&As).
First, we study the role of human capital in firms’ decisions to enter a new sector by acquiring an existing company or by building on existing resources. The idea is that firms are more likely to enter by acquisition when their existing workforce is not adapted to the sector of entry.
Then, we track workers’ trajectories on the internal labor market of the newly-formed business group. We track workers’ movements before and after the acquisition. We are interested in the effect of M&As on the total number of workers, as well as in the heterogeneous effects of M&As on differnet worker types (occupations, wages).
Finally, we analyze firm startups following the merger or acquisition of firms. We track individual workers through time once they leave the newly-formed business group.