We review the theory and statistical evidence concerning the causes and effects of seasoned public offerings of common stock. We focus in particular on results and findings that post-date the well known survey by Smith (1986). In fact, recent studies now provide at least partial answers to...

This essay surveys the extant literature and adds to the empirical evidence on issuance activity,flotation costs, and valuation effects of security offerings. We focus primarily on public offerings of equity for cash, although we also review and present new evidence on debt offerings and private...

The 'new issues puzzle' is that stocks of common stock issuers subsequently underperform nonissuers matched on size and book-to-market ratio. With 7000 seasoned equity and debt issues, we document that issuer underperformance reflects lower systematic risk exposure for issuing firms relative to...