While there has been a significant amount of research covering the causes of merger waves, few papers have rank ordered merger waves based on the causes nor sought to determine which rationale leads to higher bidder payouts. This paper seeks to fill this gap by examining a cross section of large, global mergers across most industries occurring over a 17 year period. I find that merger waves over this period are caused foremost by changing economic and regulatory conditions. It is the behavioral rationale of mispricing, however, that more often leads to higher bidder payouts or merger premiums among acquirers in merger waves.

中文翻译：

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合并浪潮：买家是追随群体还是对结构性队列做出回应？

尽管有大量研究涵盖了并购浪潮的成因，但很少有论文根据原因对有序的并购浪潮进行排名，也没有试图确定哪种理由导致更高的竞标者支付。本文试图通过研究跨越17年的大部分行业中的大型全球性合并来填补这一空白。我发现，这段时期的并购浪潮首先是由不断变化的经济和监管条件引起的。但是，错误定价的行为原理是，在并购浪潮中，通常会导致更高的要约人支付或并购方之间的并购溢价。