M&A disclosure post-global financial crisis: The influence of family ownership

This study investigates whether acquirers provide higher-quality disclosures for mergers and acquisitions (M&As) after the global financial crisis (GFC) compared to before, in an effort to restore investors’ trust and secure access to credit in a country, Italy, that lengthy recovered from the severe GFC. By employing a comprehensive mandatory disclosure index, we conduct empirical research on a sample of M&As spanning the pre-GFC (2006–2008) and post-GFC (2015–2017) periods in Italy. Our findings show heightened M&A disclosure quality post-GFC compared to the pre-crisis period, with the improvement being significantly more pronounced in familyowned acquirers than in non-family ones. This outcome remains robust after matching family and non-family observations through propensity-score matching. The study enriches extant knowledge on disclosure quality and offers practical implications to regulators, standard setters, and investors who may evaluate different responses to the GFC in a crucial area of disclosure.