Ribeiro, Humberto2013-04-022013-04-022008Ribeiro, Humberto (2008). The accounting choice issue and the M&A activity. In 17th European Financial Management Association Annual Meeting. Athens, Greecehttp://hdl.handle.net/10198/8315EFM classification: 710, 160, 200This study addresses the issue of the accounting choice as a possible determinant of mergers & acquisitions (M&A) activity. The accounting choice has value implications, and managerial discretion can be used to meet financial reporting objectives (see e.g. Watts & Zimmerman, 1990). On the other hand, despite the existence of a wide empirical and theoretical research, the literature still lacks a convincing overall theory concerning M&A occurrence. Nevertheless, the overall evidence suggests that some macroeconomic variables are associated with the timing of M&A. This paper studies whether accounting choice developments can affect M&A activity together with macroeconomic, time, and several M&A endogenous variables. The findings show a significant positive relationship between M&A activity and stock market prices, and also several significant associations between M&A and other endogenous and exogenous explanatory variables, but no relationship between accounting choice and M&A activity.engTime seriesM&A determinantsconference object