Foreign investor reactions to risk and uncertainty in antitrust: U.S. merger policy investigations and the deterrence of foreign acquirer presence

Motivated by the potential for antitrust and competition policies to be protectionist in effect, we formulate the theoretical prior that merger policy deters foreign acquirer participation in local M&A markets. The policy risk and policy uncertainty characteristic of merger review may negatively affect foreign acquirers more so than domestic acquirers, thereby disadvantaging foreign acquisitions of local firms and deterring future...