Toro
Diamond Member
This paper provides the first comparative examination of the consequences of leveraged buyouts (LBOs) and traditional corporate acquisitions on employment and wages using a uniquely constructed panel data set covering the period 1996-2006. Employing propensity score matching combined with difference-in-differences analysis, the key findings are: (1) related and unrelated acquisitions have employment consequences of a similar magnitude, (2) related and unrelated acquisitions have the largest negative impact on employment followed by non-private equity backed LBOs, (3) acquisitions in the same industry cause an increase in wages, and (4) private equity backed LBOs have no significant impact on either employment or wages.
What are the Wage and Employment Consequences of Leveraged Buyouts, Private Equity and Acquisitions in the UK? by Kevin Amess, Sourafel Girma, Mike Wright :: SSRN
Private equity critics claim that leveraged buyouts bring huge job losses. To investigate this claim, we construct and analyze a new dataset that covers U.S. private equity transactions from 1980 to 2005. We track 3,200 target firms and their 150,000 establishments before and after acquisition, comparing outcomes to controls similar in terms of industry, size, age, and prior growth. Relative to controls, employment at target establishments declines 3 percent over two years post buyout and 6 percent over five years. The job losses are concentrated among public-to-private buyouts, and transactions involving firms in the service and retail sectors. But target firms also create more new jobs at new establishments, and they acquire and divest establishments more rapidly. When we consider these additional adjustment margins, net relative job losses at target firms are less than 1 percent of initial employment. In contrast, the sum of gross job creation and destruction at target firms exceeds that of controls by 13 percent of employment over two years. In short, private equity buyouts catalyze the creative destruction process in the labor market, with only a modest net impact on employment. The creative destruction response mainly involves a more rapid reallocation of jobs across establishments within target firms.
Private Equity and Employment by Steven Davis, John Haltiwanger, Ron Jarmin, Josh Lerner, Javier Miranda :: SSRN