This paper separates the amount of IPO underpricing (primary market underpricing) and overvaluation (secondary market overvaluation) from the value of an IPO’s initial return to evaluate the relative importance of these two factors and their main determinants. Using data on the IPOs of 948...

We study firms that go public through reverse mergers (RMs) versus initial public offerings (IPOs) in China. Using a manually assembled data set, we show that pre-listing RM firms are larger, more profitable, and less politically connected than pre-listing IPO firms. Chinese RM firms also have...