Political and regulatory uncertainty is strongly negatively associated with merger and acquisition activity at the macro and firm levels. The strongest effects are for uncertainty regarding taxes, government spending, monetary and fiscal policies, and regulation. Consistent with a real options...

Using a comprehensive sample of takeovers from 1983 to 2016, we show that credit market conditions drive takeover activity. A deterioration in the aggregate credit quality of corporate bond issuers is associated with a large increase in aggregate deal value for all takeovers, and the strongest...