Merger Of Departments Research Articles

Government department merger, perception of administrative barriers, and corporate investment: Evidence from China's state administration for market regulation

We use the government department merger (GDM) reform in 2018 as an exogenous shock to empirically investigate the impact of government department structure on the firm's perception of administrative barriers. We document that GDM significantly reduces firms’ perception of administrative barriers. Further analysis indicates that promoting market competition and improving the business environment are two potential channels. Finally, the effect of GDM is more pronounced in samples with low market competition positions, high rent-seeking costs, and non-political connections. Our paper indicates the structure of government departments has a profound impact on firms’ behavior.

Is it worth it? Using DEA to analyze the efficiency gains and costs of merging university departments: a case study of the Complutense University of Madrid

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to analyze the benefits of the university department merger undertaken by the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) in 2017. The merger led to a new structure in which the original 184 departments were reduced to 97. To do this, we use the data envelopment analysis (DEA) to evaluate the efficiency gains of a merger process decomposing efficiency into three savings effects: learning, harmony, and scale effects. They decomposed efficiency into three savings effects: learning, harmony, and scale effects. Additionally, we introduce a new regulatory effect, which accounts for other potential recursive savings not included in the DEA analysis. Our results suggest that the merger process undertaken by the UCM achieved savings of around 20.5 million euros, approximately 6.6 million euros, which is accounted for by the regulatory effect. These savings will reproduce and accumulate annually over time. The results also show that, as a result of the intense negotiations, academic staff based at faculties engaged in the merger process may have taken more days of sick leave than academics from unmerged faculties in 2017, although the increase is not significant at standard levels.

Historical aspects of the Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Goa.

Organized delivery of mental health services in Goa had its origin during the Portuguese regime. From the inception of a mental asylum in the 1500s, mental health services have come a long way. In post liberation period, after 1961, under the guidance of a WHO Consultant, Dr. Govindaswamy, a new mental hospital was built at Panaji, Goa and it was named as the Abbe de Faria Institute. The Department of Psychiatry in Goa Medical College was established in 1968, and unlike in most parts of the country, where Psychiatry was a part of Medicine; here in Goa, it enjoyed an independent departmental status. With the merger of Department of Psychiatry with the mental hospital, an independent Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behavior emerged in 1980, a status it continues to retain till date. In 2016, the Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behavior has been identified to become a “Centre of Excellence” by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

The merger of departments across universities: The case of veterinary schools in Japanese national universities

With the rise of neoliberalism, institutional mergers are often discussed and carried out in higher education. Among merger cases, this paper will focus on the departmental mergers across universities that have not been discussed. To discuss departmental mergers, the paper will pick up the case of the merger of departments of veterinary medicine in Japan. It will reveal many issues surrounding departmental mergers and veterinary medicine; universities’ control of budgets and personnel, faculty members’ academic interest, the switch to practical training because of changing social needs, professional associations’ and local communities’ influence as stakeholders, the stronger autonomy of the university than the power of the Ministry of Education (after 2001, the MEXT: the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology), and international standards of veterinary medicine. The merger attempts led to joint undergraduate degree programs, in which two departments were combined but each remained in its original university. This partially addressed issues of size and clinical training. It can be called another type of merger. From the perspective of educational development, the case has many implications for the reorganization of the existing departments of veterinary medicine in Asia, most of which are smaller in size than their American counterparts. It is also significant to the departments of other disciplines, that are struggling to improve their standings because of their small size.

Measuring Complexity: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis Approach

This study examines complexity as a measure of support for organizational redirection. This study considers whether 16 items (culture, mission, values, decentralization, policies and procedures, administrative reporting practices, weapons, contract, pay, benefits, patrol boundaries, equalization of workload, size of boundaries, communications, 10-codes, and car numbers) appropriately characterized a suppressed measure of complexity related to complex organizational change, a police department merger. The current study utilizes data collected from 390 sworn officers from two merged law enforcement agencies in Kentucky. The results of the structural equation model analysis supported the view that four factors (mission, logistics, benefits, and policy) fashion an underlying construct for measuring complexity related to organizational change/redirection. The implications of these findings are also considered.

The Obama Justice Department's Merger Enforcement Record: An Armchair Reply to Baker and Shapiro

This brief comment responds to Jonathan Baker and Carl Shapiro's comment on my earlier essay, Has the Obama Justice Department Reinvigorated Antitrust Enforcement, 65 Stan. L. Rev. Online 13 (2012).

Fear, Anxiety, and Loss of Control: Analyzing an Athletic Department Merger as a Gendered Political Process

This study examined organizational processes involved in a merger between two gender affiliated intercollegiate athletic departments. A conceptual framework incorporating the concepts of gendered social processes, and the transition and integration stages of organizational mergers framed the study. Organizational political activity is perceived as a gendered process in merging groups. Interviews with 57 stakeholders of a university athletic department were conducted. The data analysis showed that gender politics identified in the transition stage involved stakeholders’ emotional reactions. In the integration stage, gender politics were evident during the social processes of assessing trust and loyalties, and cultural reengineering. Practical implications for merger facilitation are noted in terms of considering the necessity of merging, the hiring of outside leadership, and implementing a communication plan. Overall, our study furthers our understanding of the gender politics involved in merging gender affiliated sport organizations.

Oil Industry Mergers: Structural Impacts And Antitrust Merger Guidelines

Oil industry mergers and consolidations of recent years have included some of the largest firms in the US oil industry. Cost and efficiency pressures have also led many firms, both merging and non-merging, to close, consolidate or sell many production, refining and marketing assets and to consolidate exploration and production programs worldwide. This paper examines the effects of recent mergers on US oil industry structure using the 1982 Justice Department merger guidelines to exemplify the types of factors antitrust authorities may have considered in permitting mergers to play a large role in the oil industry restructuring of the 1980s.

Table of Contents

AbstractState Budget Shortfalls Continue to Impact Mental Health SystemsColorado Integrated Care Project Will Nurture Experienced AgenciesMH Providers, Advocates Work to Lessen Impact of State CutsN.J. Department Merger to Expand Treatment, Improve ServicesArtistic Expression Can Have Positive Impact on Consumers' MHBriefly NotedState NewsNames in the NewsResourcesComing up

A university department merger of midwifery and obstetrics: a step on the journey to enhancing interprofessional learning

A first-class maternity service requires effective team working and opportunities for multiprofessional learning. However, it has been found that collaboration and cohesive working between doctors and midwives is not always evident. This paper describes the context for a unique merger of two academic departments, obstetrics/gynaecology and midwifery, with a view to enhancing interprofessional collaboration in teaching and research. Although interprofessional learning, particularly at undergraduate level, can be difficult to design and implement it is argued that it is necessary to enhance multiprofessional teamwork. It was found that a staged programme of action is needed to develop and evaluate curricular initiatives in interprofessional learning. Whilst learning about and valuing each other's roles is as important as sharing curriculum content it can involve an element of risk and considerable resources. Pilot work locally suggests that it is well worth the time and effort involved but long-term success will be dependent upon staff commitment and evaluation of the process as well as the outcomes.

Do Regulators Read the Literature? Bank Merger Regulation, 1963-1990

During the early 1980s a series of events occurred that altered the regulatory, political, and scholarly underpinnings of bank merger regulation. New laws that deregulated financial institutions increased actual and potential competition in banking markets. Consistent with the laissez faire spirit of this deregulation, the Reagan Justice Department relaxed its enforcement of the merger antitrust laws. New banking cost studies produced lower estimates of optimal bank scale, suggesting that small banks might be more effective rivals of large full service banks than previously thought. New studies in industrial organization began to question the traditional notion that concentration and collusion are the root causes of excess profits, weakening one of the primary justifications for denying mergers of banks and nonbanks alike. This paper explores whether the Federal Reserve Board of Governors' commercial bank merger policy changed around 1980, and whether these changes were consistent with contemporaneous regulatory, political, and scholarly developments. The determinants of the Board's merger policy both before and after the early 1980s are estimated using a binomial probit model. The results suggest that the Board revised its overall merger policy consistent with changes in the Justice Department's Merger Guidelines, but was only marginally influenced by changes in the banking cost and industrial organization literature. Although merger policy became more relaxed as Reagan appointees were added to the Board, the possibility that this loosening was a response to the increased competition in financial markets could not be dismissed.

An antitrust analysis of non-profit hospital mergers

This paper considers such issues involved in non-profit hospital mergers as relevant product and geographic markets and the impacts of mergers on competition. The roles of non-price competition, entry barriers, and merger-generated efficiencies are considered. Close attention is given to the relevance of the Justice Department Merger guideline to the hospital industry. Through detailed examination of four litigated or challenged cases, the geographic market is shown to depend upon particular medical services. Outpatient services are found to comprise a separate market from inpatient hospital services, and non-profit status is determined to warrant the usual antitrust merger treatment.

The divergence of SIC industries from antitrust markets: Indications from Justice Department merger cases

A comparison between the size of markets alleged in Justice Department merger cases and SIC industries indicates that SIC industries generally are far larger than antitrust markets.

Input market definition under department of Justice Merger Guidelines

This paper applies the Justice Department's Merger Guidelines to define a relevant antitrust market for an input. An expression for the elasticity of the residual demand facing a monopoly supplier of a factor of production is derived. It is shown that proper input market definition depends on the elasticity of residual demand confronting the downstream input users, on the supply elasticity in the downstream market (which, in turn, depends on the rate of capital depreciation there), on the cost of the input as a percentage of downstream sales, and on the extent to which the monopolist is integrated downstream.

Market Delineation and the Justice Department's Merger Guidelines

Market Delineation and the Justice Department's Merger Guidelines

Proposed Revisions of the Justice Department's Merger Guidelines

Proposed Revisions of the Justice Department's Merger Guidelines