To close an asserted equity gap, the Canadian regulators implemented the Capital Pool Company program, which enables small firms to directly access the stock market, thus bypassing the conventional growth cycle. Similar to American Blind Pools/Blank-Checks, Capital Pool Companies have spawned...

We analyze the long-run performance of the population of Canadian firms that cross-list in the US between 1990 and 2005, paying particular attention to cross-delisting companies. We ask why, since numerous firms cross-list to get the advantages associated with cross-listing, these firms'...

The Canadian stock market lists many low capitalization securities, i.e. "penny stocks, which are generally acquired and exchanged by individual investors. These securities have not been studied in depth and are thus not very well known. We describe this market and three particular risk forms to...

In Canada, most of the private placements are offered by small and unprofitable entrepreneurial ventures -- for which the asymmetry of information and adverse selection problems are particularly acute. Private placements are a very important source of equity for these emerging businesses. In...

Evidence of underpricing of initial public offerings (IPOs) has spawned a considerable theoretical literature attempting to explain the apparent contradiction to market efficiency. This article reassesses that evidence by examining not just common shares Canadian IPOs, but also unit and Junior...

The purpose of this paper is to shed some light on the costs associated with initial public offerings (IPOs), and this is performed by undertaking a large sample of Canadian and United States IPOs. More specifically, we gather information in the universe of firm-commitment and best-effort IPOs...

According to Coffee (2002), the number of securities exchanges in the world is likely to eventually shrink radically, under the effects of globalization and technology, thus leading to the question of the survival of relatively small exchanges. However, little information exists regarding the...

Most countries have set up structures and programs for new business creation and financing. We analyze strategies implemented in France, Germany and United Kingdom, where the proportion of government funds in venture capital financing is significantly smaller than in the Quebec, yet the rate of...

As investor and researcher interest in emerging markets increases, the question of the availability and reliability of financial information pertinent to these markets becomes more and more important. This paper examines the availability and quality of accounting information on Malaysian firms...

Acknowledging that securities regulation penalizes small growing firms in their attempt to raise equity capital, most of the Canadian provinces have recently reformed their exemption rules. These rules allow the issuance of securities outside the boundaries of securities regulation. The rules...