If you call it a wave: system parameters of merger waves - a wave pattern analysis

This study presumes merger waves as a periodical wave phenomenon and fits a continuous function with five parameters to the annual time series data of US mergers over a 116 year period. The function describes the annual number of mergers as the sum of an exponential trend term with a doubling time of 19.05 years and a periodical term with a non-growing amplitude. Parameters are determined with reasonable criteria to identify salient characteristics. With the implied periodicity the relation of mean reversion parameter to inertia parameter is calculated characterizing the underlying US merger system.