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Article
Is It More Profitable to Acquire Cleaner or Dirtier Firms?
Environmental Economics and Policy Studies
  • Mahelet G. Fikru, Missouri University of Science and Technology
  • Matt Insall, Missouri University of Science and Technology
Abstract

When polluting firms acquire firms in the same industry, do they seek out greener firms to make use of their cleaner technology, especially under threat of penalty for pollution? How does penalty for pollution affect the incentive for acquisition? The result of this study indicates that firms who are penalized for their pollution do not necessarily seek out greener firms to acquire. Our result suggests that it is more profitable for polluting firms to takeover dirtier firms and shut them down. Our result also indicates that, at lower levels of emission tax, the incentive for acquiring a dirtier firm increases with an increase in tax but the opposite is true for higher levels of emission tax.

Department(s)
Economics
Second Department
Mathematics and Statistics
Keywords and Phrases
  • Abatement,
  • Acquisitions,
  • Emission tax,
  • Pollution intensity,
  • Profitability
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2016 Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies and Springer Japan, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
10-1-2016
Publication Date
01 Oct 2016
Disciplines
Citation Information
Mahelet G. Fikru and Matt Insall. "Is It More Profitable to Acquire Cleaner or Dirtier Firms?" Environmental Economics and Policy Studies Vol. 18 Iss. 4 (2016) p. 443 - 457 ISSN: 1432-847X; 1867-383X
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/matt-insall/35/