Financial development, culture, institutional quality, trade,

Using data on cross-border acquisitions (CBAs), this paper explores the distribution of alternative strategies pursued when multinational enterprises integrate foreign subsidiaries into their organizational structure. Based on a measure of vertical relatedness, each of the 165,000 acquisitions in our sample covering 31 source and 58 host countries can be classified as horizontal, vertical, or conglomerate. Three novel features of CBAs are highlighted. First, horizontal and vertical CBAs are relatively stable over time. Second, a considerable part of CBAs are conglomerate acquisitions whereby the financial sector is an important, though by far not the only, segment involved. Third, the wave-like growth of CBAs arises primarily from changes in conglomerate activity. [JEL F15, F21, F23, F33] IMF Economic Review (2016) 64, 319-353.

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SummaryCross-border acquisitions constitute the main form of foreign direct investment in the world economy, the focus of this paper being to consider the determinants of the location and growth of cross-border acquisitions in the global food sector. The data relates to over 2,000 international acquisitions in the food sector from 45 source to 46 host countries. The results highlight the importance of market size, relative costs and stock market growth as important determinants. We also report differences involving acquisitions in food processing and retailing and higher and lower/middle income countries. Results involving acquisitions in European countries are also highlighted.

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