Macroeconomic Conditions and Business Exit: Determinants of Failures and Acquisitions of UK Firms

Arnab Bhattacharjee, Chris Higson, Sean Holly, Paul Kattuman

    Research output: Working paper/PreprintWorking paper

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    Abstract

    We study the impact of macroeconomic instability on business exit in a world where acquisition and bankruptcy are co-determined. Our objective is to discover how the processes that determine bankruptcies and acquisitions depend on the macroeconomic environment, particularly, macroeconomic instability. To this end we estimate competing risks hazard regression models using data on UK quoted firms spanning a thirty-eight year period that witnessed several business cycles. We find that macroeconomic instability has opposite effects on bankruptcy hazard and acquisition hazard, raising the former and lowering the latter. While it is not surprising that bankruptcy hazard is counter-cyclical and acquisition hazard pro-cyclical, it is noteworthy that the US business cycle is a better predictor of UK acquisitions and bankruptcies than the UK cycle itself.
    Original languageEnglish
    Place of PublicationSt. Andrews
    PublisherCentre for Dynamic Macroeconomic Analysis
    Number of pages42
    Publication statusPublished - 2007

    Publication series

    NameCDMA Working Paper Series
    PublisherSchool of Economics and Finance, University of St. Andrews
    No.CDMA07/13

    Keywords

    • Bankruptcy
    • Acquisitions
    • Macroeconomic instability
    • COMPETING RISKS
    • Cox Proportional Hazards Model

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