Using a hand-collected data set of private firm acquisitions and IPOs, this paper develops the first empirical analysis in the literature of the "IPO valuation premium puzzle," which refers to a situation where many private firms choose to be acquired rather than to go public at higher...

We analyze the role of venture capitalists (VCs) in transforming the management and governance of China's private family firms pre-IPO. We show, causally, that VC-backed family firms are more likely than non-VC backed family firms to experience departures of family members from top management...

The U.S. equity markets have experienced a remarkable decline in IPOs since 2000, both in terms of smaller IPO volume and entrepreneurial firms' greater tendency to exit through acquisitions rather than IPOs. Using proprietary U.S. Census data on private firms, we conduct a comprehensive...

We analyze the dynamics of private firms' exit choice between IPOs and acquisitions and the valuation premium of IPOs over acquisitions from pre-2000 to post-2000. We first develop a two-period theoretical model, where in each period, entrepreneurs with private information about the viability of...

We analyze the optimality of allowing disclosures of different types of information before equity offerings and of alternative rules for private securities litigation, where courts may penalize unduly optimistic disclosures ex post. In our model, firm insiders, with private information about...

We use a unique sample of hand-collected data on the management quality of firms making SEOs or IPOs to analyze the relationship between the management quality of a firm and its SEO characteristics, and to compare the effect of management quality on equity issue characteristics in SEOs and IPOs....

We analyze how corporate venture capitalists (CVCs) differ from independent venture capitalists (IVCs) in nurturing innovation in entrepreneurial firms. Using the NBER Patent Citation database, we find that CVCs help their portfolio firms achieve a higher degree of innovation productivity, as...

Using various “centrality” measures from Social Network Analysis (SNA), we analyze how the location of a lead IPO underwriter in its network of investment banks affects various IPO characteristics. We hypothesize that investment banking networks allow lead IPO underwriters to induce...

Using various “centrality” measures from Social Network Analysis (SNA), we analyze, for the first time in the literature, how the location of a lead underwriter in its network of investment banks affects various aspects of seasoned equity offerings (SEOs). We hypothesize that investment...

We analyze the determinants and consequences of option listing on IPO firm stock. We find that options are listed earlier on venture-backed and lower-reputation underwriter IPOs. We find a significant decrease in stock returns immediately after option listing, persisting for a year. Analyzing...