Professor Stevens has attempted to determine whether or not a consistent financial basis for merger exists as measured by premerger financial characteristics of the acquired firms. He suggests that results of his study are useful in identifying merger motives and in relating such motives to a general framework for analysis of merger movements.

Robert J. Monroe, James S. Trieschmann, Portfolio Performance of Property-Liability Insurance Companies, The Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Vol. 7, No. 2, Supplement: Outlook for the Securities Industry (Mar., 1972), pp. 1595-1611