International Trade and the Propagation of Merger Waves

Cross-border merger activity is growing in importance. We map the global trade network each year from 1989 to 2014 and compare it to cross-border and domestic merger activity. Trade-weighted merger activity in trading partner countries has statistically and economically significant explanatory power for the likelihood a given country will be in a merger wave state, both at the cross-border and the domestic levels, even controlling for its own lagged merger activity. The strength of trade as a channel for transmitting merger waves varies over time and is affected by import tariffs cuts, Euro, EU, EEA, and WTO entry. Overall, the full trade network helps our understanding of merger waves and how merger waves propagate across borders.