The Effect of Corporate Diversification on Firm Value: In the Presence of Financial Crisis

This paper examines the value of corporate diversification during 2001 and 2015. Analysis of firms’ excess value with differences-in-differences model reveals a significant diversification discount over the pre-crisis period while it turns to positive after the crisis. The value increased in diversi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Li, Zhi
Format: Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2016
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/36920/
Description
Summary:This paper examines the value of corporate diversification during 2001 and 2015. Analysis of firms’ excess value with differences-in-differences model reveals a significant diversification discount over the pre-crisis period while it turns to positive after the crisis. The value increased in diversified firms becomes significant since the model is corrected for self-selection issues. However, I do not find the evidence on the hypothesis that the same relationship between diversified firms and focused firms would remain for unrelated and related diversifiers. Therefore, I propose that the value of firm may not necessarily link to the degree of diversification, suggesting diversifiers should strike a balance between diversification and specialization especially for the year of recession.