Running head: M&A ON EMPLOYMENT IN AFRICA ASHESI UNIVERSITY COLLEGE IMPACT OF MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS ON EMPLOYMENT IN AFRICA By

In Africa, several empirical studies on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have mainly focused on why they occur and not on their likely impact on macroeconomic indicators. Mergers and Acquisitions are major corporate actions but these raise imperative concerns about labour employment. The objective of this study therefore is to empirically test the impact of M&A on employment in Africa using annual time series and cross-sectional data of 14 African countries from 1990 to 2010. The study developed an empirical model in which M&A, interest rate, GDP growth and inflation are the explanatory variables, with employment as the dependent variable. Before the model is estimated, the time series features of the data are diagnosed. A panel dataset is created and the model is reestimated using the Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) estimator which corrects for heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation. The estimated results suggest that M&A have a statistically significant and negative relationship with employment in Africa. The implication of the study’s findings necessitates the need for employers to pay attention to the loss of institutional knowledge in using M&A as a tool for downsizing employment and the need for employees to learn new skills to increase their retention rates during an M&A deal. One major implication for policy makers in Africa such as trade unions and labour institutions is the need to negotiate for mutually beneficial post-merger integrating strategies geared towards the protection of workers interest.