Social Connections and Information Leakage: Evidence from Target Stock Price Run-up in Takeovers
Iftekhar Hasan, Lin Tong, An Yan
Journal of Financial Research,
Vol. 48 (2),
2025
Abstract
Does information leakage in a target's social networks increase its stock price prior to a merger announcement? Evidence reveals that a target with more social connections indeed experiences a higher pre-announcement price run-up. This effect does not exist during or after the merger announcement, or in windows ending two months before the announcement. It is more pronounced among targets with severe asymmetric information, and weaker when the information about the upcoming merger is publicly available prior to the announcement. It is also weaker in expedited deals such as tender offers.
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IWH Bankruptcy Research
IWH Bankruptcy Research The Bankruptcy Research Unit of the Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) presents the Institute’s research on the topics of corporate bankruptcy,…
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Board Announcements
Board Announcements Nov 06, 2025: Evaluation 2025: feedback Nov 03, 2025: Evaluation 2025: important information Oct 02, 2025: Second Trial Evaluation June 17, 2025: Feedback…
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Halle Institute for Economic Research
Labour Markets: Sharpened Focus With the new name, the Department places its research focus on labour economics at the centre. Core topics remain structural change, wages,…
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Centre for Evidence-based Policy Advice
Centre for Evidence-based Policy Advice (IWH-CEP) The Centre for Evidence-based Policy Advice (IWH-CEP) of the IWH was founded in 2014. It is a platform that bundles and…
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Corporate Loan Spreads and Economic Activity
Anthony Saunders, Alessandro Spina, Sascha Steffen, Daniel Streitz
Review of Financial Studies,
Vol. 38 (2),
2025
Abstract
We use secondary corporate loan-market prices to construct a novel loan-market-based credit spread. This measure has considerable predictive power for economic activity across macroeconomic outcomes in both the U.S. and Europe and captures unique information not contained in public market credit spreads. Loan-market borrowers are compositionally different and particularly sensitive to supply-side frictions as well as financial frictions that emanate from their own balance sheets. This evidence highlights the joint role of financial intermediary and borrower balance-sheet frictions in understanding macroeconomic developments and enriches our understanding of which type of financial frictions matter for the economy.
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Research Clusters
Three Research Clusters Each IWH research group is assigned to a topic-oriented research cluster. The clusters are not separate organisational units, but rather bundle the…
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Alumni
IWH Alumni The IWH maintains contact with its former employees worldwide. We involve our alumni in our work and keep them informed, for example, with a newsletter. We also plan…
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Macroeconomic Reports
Macroeconomic Reports Local and global: IWH regularly provides current economic data – be it about the state of the East German economy, the macroeconomic development in Germany…
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Subscribe to the IWH Newsletter “Wirtschaft im Wandel” The IWH newsletter "Wirtschaft im Wandel" quaterly notifies subscribers via e-mail of research results, new publications,…
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