Feng, Y.Liu, C.Yawson, A.2025-05-152025-05-152023Pacific Basin Finance Journal, 2023; 82:102156-1-102156-270927-538X1879-0585https://hdl.handle.net/2440/144560Available online 18 September 2023The paper examines the role of M&A advisors in propagating takeover activity following economic shocks that affect industry conditions. M&A advisors constitute an important intermediary in the market for corporate control by enhancing M&A success at a transaction level. We posit that, at an industry level, M&A advisors also play a significant role in propagating aggregate merger activity in the wake of an industry shock. The empirical results show a positive, significant relationship between the presence of M&A advisors and industry takeover activity, and offer evidence supporting the incremental role of M&A advisors following industry shocks. The results are robust to empirical strategies aimed at alleviating endogeneity concerns, including using a legislative change as an exogenous shock to M&A advisors and exploring reverse causality. Our evidence offers novel insights on the collective role of M&A advisors in the takeover market.en© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Economic shocksIndustry merger activityM&A advisorsJournal article10.1016/j.pacfin.2023.1021562024-01-27642463Liu, C. [0000-0002-7100-7360]Yawson, A. [0000-0002-5000-7871]