Mergers and Productivity.

• Position: Review

Mergers and Productivity, edited by Steven N. Kaplan, is now available from the University of Chicago Press for $40.00. This NBER Conference Report looks at high-profile mergers in a variety of industries. Focusing on specific acquisitions, it illustrates the range of contingencies involved in any merger attempt. The various authors establish each merger's presumed objectives and the potential costs and benefits of the acquisition, and they place this in the context of the broader industry. The contributors conclude that certain merger and acquisition activities were associated with technological or regulatory shocks, and that a merger's success or failure depends on the acquirer's thorough understanding of the target, its...