Time to acquire: Regulatory burden and M&A activity

Firms go public to make acquisitions, but private firms benefit from lower regulatory cost. Investment by newly public firms may be limited if managers need to focus on compliance instead of growth. Exploiting a 2012 US policy reform, we show that when regulatory cost is lower, firms make more acquisitions, do so more quickly after listing, and also increase other forms of investment. Examining potential unintended consequences of reduced regulation, we find that opportunistic bidding arising from higher information asymmetry does not explain these results. We inform the ongoing policy debate on broadening the scale and scope of regulatory relief.