This study documents the first large‐scale empirical evidence on the effects of differences in countries' environmental sustainability (ES) on cross‐border merger and acquisition (M&A) activity. Using 34,088 cross‐border mergers across 44 countries, we find that greater ES differences between acquirer and target countries stimulate the intensity of cross‐border mergers. The acquirer firms experience higher cumulative abnormal returns around merger announcements and pay higher merger premiums. Consistent with the pollution haven hypothesis, results on value effect are more pronounced for M&A deals in highly polluting industries such as petroleum, transportation and mining. The results are robust to a battery of robustness tests.

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