This paper presents a theory of inititial public offerings based on the idea that the optimal ownership structure of a company changes over the life cycle of the firm. Insiders take the company public when they have lost the comparative advantage over outsiders in gathering information to...

This paper examines the impact of SOX on the total cost and the component cost of going public. First, we document a statistically significant increase in non-underwriting expenses of 0.8 percentage points after the introduction of SOX, which is mostly due to an increase in accounting and legal...

Why do private firms stay private? Empirical evidence on this issue is sparse, as most private firms in the US do not report their financial results. We investigate why private status matters by taking advantage of a unique dataset of large, leveraged private firms with SEC filings. Unlike a...

This paper estimates the issuers' demand for the banker's underwriting service across different varieties of equity-linked securities.

Market share objectives are prominent in many industries, especially where man-agers pay much attention to league table rankings. This paper explores the strategicrationale for giving managers incentives based on market share in an oligopoly com-peting in strategic substitutes. Moreover, the...

Private equity funds and hedge funds are both alternative asset classes that are continuouslygrowing in importance. Although they have different focuses, they share some characteristics.First of all, both have or allegedly have a significant impact on the economy as well as thefinancial system...

Analysts providing more accurate earnings forecasts also issue moreprofitable recommendations. We demonstrate how investors can profit fromthis contemporaneous link by differentiating between “able” and “lucky”analysts. In line with previous studies, we find that past track records...

The development of Asian foreign exchange markets has progressed appreciably in recent years. Data from the BIS Triennial Central Bank Survey indicate that the turnover of Asian currencies rose sharply between 2004 and 2007, financial institutions became more important customers, and the...

We study product innovation and imitation in the market of corporate underwriting with a dynamic model where client switching costs and the bankers’ expertise in deal structuring characterize the life cycle of a security. While the clientele loyalty allows positive rent extraction, the superior...

The paper offers a new explanation for the widely observed use of redeemable and convertible preferred stock in venture capital finance. Redeemable and convertible preferred stocks can be used to endogenously allocate cash flow and control rights as a function of the state of nature, the...