We investigate how changes in firm productivity after M&As are affected by differences in profit taxation between the target and the acquirer. We argue that tax differentials distort the efficient allocation of productive factors following an M&A and thus inhibit the realization of productivity improvements. Using firm-level data on inputs and outputs of production as well as on corporate M&As, we show that the absolute tax differential between the locations of two merging firms reduces the subsequent total factor productivity gain. This effect is concentrated in horizontal M&As and less pronounced when firms can use international profit shifting to attenuate effective differences in taxation.

我们调查了目标与收购方之间的利得税差异如何影响并购后企业生产率的变化。我们认为，税收差异在并购之后扭曲了生产要素的有效分配，从而抑制了生产率提高的实现。使用有关生产投入和产出以及公司并购的公司级数据，我们表明，两家合并公司所在地之间的绝对税收差异会减少随后的全要素生产率收益。这种影响集中在横向并购中，而当企业可以利用国际利润转移来减轻税收的有效差异时，这种影响就不那么明显了。