Oil Price Uncertainty and M&A Activity
Barrows S.D. Blomkvist M. Dimic N. Vulanovic M.
2023International Association for Energy Economics
Energy Journal
2023#44Issue 41 - 20 pp.
This study examines the impact of oil price uncertainty on mergers and acquisition (M&A) activity in the oil and gas sector. Analyzing this industry enables us to construct a natural forward-looking measure of oil price uncertainty, namely the implied crude oil volatility. Using a sample of U.S. firms in the oil and gas sector from 1994–2018 containing 4,323 announced transactions, we document that oil price uncertainty is negatively related to future M&A activity. Uncertainty is mainly a driver of horizontal and vertical M&A activity, where upstream firms are more affected by this uncertainty than downstream firms. Our results lend support to a real options explanation of investment under uncertainty where firms choose to defer investments as a response to increased uncertainty.
Corporate investment , Energy economics , Implied crude oil volatility , M&A , Oil and gas sector , Oil price uncertainty
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College of Social Sciences, KIMEP University, 2 Abai Avenue, Almaty, 050010, Kazakhstan
Department of Data Science, Economics and Finance at EDHEC Business School, 24 avenue Gustave Delory, CS 50411, Cedex 1, Roubaix, 59057, France
School of Accounting and Finance, University of Vaasa, Wolffintie 34, Vaasa, 65200, Finland
College of Social Sciences
Department of Data Science
School of Accounting and Finance
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