 If I tell you that, from next month, the annual salary of your friend Russell will increase by $20,000, how do you feel? Would you be very happy for your friend, or would you be very, very jealous like me? The salary of your friend Russell can increase if the company in which Russell works is merged or combined with another company. In finance, when two companies are merged, a synergy is created. Russell provides some of the two companies the strength of at least three companies in terms of profitability and productivity, enabling the new company to pay its employees higher salaries. Therefore, Russell can earn more than you, even though both of you have same qualification and same work experiences. But if that happens, you will get jealous. Your boss will also get jealous to see Russell's company to perform better than your company. You might think that this jealousy doesn't matter, but my research finds that it does matter. The research question of my study is that if a merger increases the salaries offered by the merging company, then how the neighboring company employees are affected? My research finds that your jealousy at your friend's salary increase will make you stressed, agitated, and even negligent about your job. If it drives you to perform poorly, then your company performance will go down in the next six months of this merging event. Still, if your boss doesn't increase your salary, you may even quit, depriving your company which wants his workforce to persist to perform better. I find that the chance that you will quit out of jealousy is at least 7%. Some economists might argue that people later from the merging company would fill up this vacancy, but I find that that chance is very slim because of skill mismatch. Watching the employees to quit and productivity to go down, your boss will be compelled to increase your salaries because a salary increase will help her to retain the employees and make them perform better, which in turn will bounce back her company performance. Controlling all the factors, my research finds that the chance of your salary increase here is up to 10%. Therefore, people in the neighboring companies who survive are better off. This result is important. A salary increase will make you happy and perform better. People like you in your company as well as in other company will also do the same. Therefore, the whole economy will be better off. So next time you come to know about some companies merging in your neighborhood, hang on before you quit because in the long run your jealousy is going to pay off. Thank you.