The purpose of this paper is to provide a direct test of the small-firm uniqueness hypothesis advanced by Ang (1991). We do this by using the 5B-IPO program of the SEC as our instrument to define a small firm. Having identified small firms, we test the three IPO anomalies to see if small firms...

This paper presents evidence on the failed initial public offerings that used best efforts contracts. Out of 732 best efforts IPOs attempted in 1980-84, 186 IPOs (about one fourth) failed to meet minimum sales requirement and were subsequently withdrawn. Offerings with greater uncertainty about...

The incentive stock options (ISOs) are similar to the regular stock call options. However, when one considers various taxing laws regarding the ISO stocks, the ISOs have unique features differentiated from the regular stock call options. In general, no income from ISOs is realized, for tax...

A signaling argument has recently been developed whereby IPO underpricing is a signal of future firm value. Only higher quality firms can be expected to recover the cost of this signal through subsequent offerings of seasoned equities. This study uses three proxies for firm quality and finds...

This paper attempts to extend the Certification Paradigm--mainly used in the literature as an explanation for IPO underpricings--to provide guidelines to entrepreneurs in their efforts to secure funding for new ventures. After extending the model to cases of pre-venture-capital start-up firms,...

In this study we analyze the IPO exit behavior of venture capitalists (VCs) in the Neuer Markt, the former market for young growth companies in Germany. We find empirical evidence that VCs were able to time their exit quite successfully in the primary market and to some extent also in the...

This study compares the profitability, operational efficiency, and firm value over the 1985-1990 period of 100 firms that had IPOs in 1985 compared to a matched sample of similar firms which had their IPO before 1980. We find that the 1985 IPO firms were more profitable, operationally more...

Exit rates provide a simple yet practical measure for evaluating and benchmarking the performance of venture capital funds. We create a sample of 138 liquidated U.S. venture capital funds and investigate the outcomes of their 4,549 portfolio companies. We study exit rates, proportions of...

Asset pricing models with atomistic agents typically relax assumptions concerning rationality and/or homogenous information in order to track endogenous bubbles. In this model, identically informed rational agents hold a Perceived Law of Motion (PLM) for a single new technology asset at IPO, yet...

Previous research on IPOs has identified several factors or issue characteristics that play a role in the level of short term underpricing of initial public offerings. Some of those issue features are the firm size, market trend, size of the offer, investment banker reputation, method of...