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Does Heightened M&A Activity Benefit Innovation and Consumers? Evidence from the Pharmaceuticals Industry

Thesis advisor: Michael D. Grubb / The aim of this paper is two-fold: 1) to explore the ex-ante relatedness of merging pharmaceutical companies and 2) to study the ex-post effects of mergers on R&D innovation and drug prices, where innovation is quantified by the number of patents granted. Annual firm-specific financial and patent data in this study were obtained for years between 1987 and 2014, while quarterly drug price data spanned from 2006 Q1 to 2015 Q1. The empirical results suggest that on average, heightened M&A activity leads to diminished R&D output and higher drug prices. These results are confirmed using time series models and by comparing post-merger performance of merged firms to that of their respective control groups through a propensity score matching method. / Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Economics.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:BOSTON/oai:dlib.bc.edu:bc-ir_104216
Date January 2015
CreatorsNeagu, Dan
PublisherBoston College
Source SetsBoston College
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, thesis
Formatelectronic, application/pdf
RightsCopyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted., The full text of this item is available only on campus at Boston College.

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