Do Mergers and Acquisitions Improve Efficiency: Evidence from Power Plants ​​​​​​​

Omer Karaduman
Stanford University
Monday, June 12, 2023 – 11:15 – 12:30 PM(CEST)

To join in person, just come to the room O 129 (i.e., in the castle, building Ostflügel, level 1, room 29). To join virtually, please register in advance using this link.

Seminar Abstract
Using rich data on hourly physical productivity and 5000 owner­ship changes from US power plants, we study the effects of mergers and acquisitions on efficiency and provide evidence on the mechanisms. We find that acquired plants experience 4% efficiency increase 5–8 months after acquisition. Three-quarters of this gain is explained by increased productive efficiency; the rest comes from dynamic efficiency at the plant level and allocative efficiency at the portfolio level. Our findings suggest that acquisitions reallocate assets to more productive uses: high-productivity firms buy underperforming assets from low-productivity firms and make the acquired assets more productive after acquisition.

Read the paper here.

Speaker Bio
Omer Karaduman is an Assistant Professor of Operations, Information and Technology at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. His research focuses on the trans­ition of the energy sector toward a decarbonized and sustainable future. In his research, he utilizes large datasets by using game-theoretical modeling to have practical policy suggestions. Professor Karaduman completed his Ph.D. in Economics at MIT in 2020 and got his bachelor's degree in Economics from Bilkent University in 2014.

Admission information
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