Three essays on corporate mergers and acquisitions.

Summary The objective of this thesis is to answer three research questions, which have been little explored in the literature. The goal of our first attempt is to control for the existence of acquisition timing. Our goal is to identify the conditions and motivations that promote timing. Our second essay focuses on the behavior of managers who engage their firms in acquisitions. Using data on insider transactions of Canadian acquirers, we empirically test whether acquisitions are the result of rational decisions or over-optimism on the part of managers. In our third essay, we focus on cross-border acquisitions. We examine the role of differences in the legal environments between the acquirer and the target in the decision to acquire abroad and the performance generated by these acquisitions.