To resolve the IPO underpricing puzzle it is essential to analyze who knows what when during the issuing process. In Germany, broker-dealers make a market in IPOs during the subscription period. We examine these pre-issue prices and find that they are highly informative. They are closer to the...

Certifiers contribute to the sound functioning of markets by reducing asymmetric information. They, however, have been heavily criticized during the 2008-09 financial crisis. This paper investigates on which side of the market a monopolistic profit-maximizing certifier offers his service. If the...

Certifiers contribute to the sound functioning of markets by reducing a symmetric information. They, however, have been heavily criticized during the 2008-09 financial crisis. This paper investigates on which side of the market a monopolistic profit-maximizing certifier offers his service. If...

We examine IPO and acquisition waves, exit choices, and pre-money valuations at exit for 7082 venture-backed private companies over the 19-year period from 1978 through 2006. Consistent with other literature, we hypothesize that levels of IPO and acquisition activity and the choice between IPO...

The Dodd-Frank Act (DFA) increased the liability of credit rating agencies amid the failure by rating agencies to discover fraud (Enron) and underestimation of the true riskiness (MBS,CDO). However, the effect of increased liability on the informational value of ratings is not clear-cut. On the...

This paper studies how security analysts use industry-level and firm-specific information in issuing firms' earnings forecasts. Analysts who use more (less) industry-level (firm-specific) information have less available resources and incentives to allocate effort towards costly firm-specific...

We consider a model where investors can invest directly or search for an asset manager, information about assets is costly, and managers charge an endogenous fee. The efficiency of asset prices is linked to the efficiency of the asset management market: if investors can find managers more...

In response to the increasing use of computer programs to process firm disclosures, this registered report develops a new measure of “scriptability” that reflects computerized, rather than human, information processing costs. We validate our measure using SEC filing‐derived data from prior...

We use the presence of a Wikipedia article for initial public offering (IPO) firms to test theories of information asymmetry and investor awareness. While we find limited support for the former, our results provide strong support for theories of investor awareness. Specifically, IPO firms with a...

By exploiting the exogenous reductions of analyst coverage due to closures and mergers of brokerage firms, I examine the causal impact of information asymmetry on insider trading. I find that corporate insiders' abnormal returns increase sharply after coverage reductions. This effect is stronger...