This paper analyses the role of venture capitalists in Italian Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). Between 1999 and 2012 venture capital backed IPOs are on average less underpriced than non-venture backed IPOs. By using both a matching and a regression-based approach to account for the non-random...

Before the IPO bubble burst, the first day return for IPOs backed by top VC firms was double that of non-top VC IPOs. Top VC IPOs were also twice as likely to receive all-star analyst coverage and suffered twice as large negative returns upon lockup expiration. We argue that this was not a...

Crowdfunding is a method of financing new ventures, commercial, cultural or social, often in return for future products or actions, engaged in by many investors. Currently, it is an important element in the structure of available sources of financing for investment projects. Despite the interest...

We find that male participants in Harvard Business School's New Venture Competition who were randomly exposed to more VC investors on their panel were substantially more likely to start a VC-backed startup post-graduation, indicating that access to investors impacts fundraising independent of...

This paper studies how institutional characteristics of Specified Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) are related to their post-merger survival. SPACs are unique financial firms that conduct the IPO with the solely purpose to use the proceeds to acquire another private company. Paper finds...

Specified Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) are a special type of public companies currently available to investors in financial markets. As an investment vehicle, modern SPACs are traced back to 18-th century England where blank checks were first mentioned as blind pools during the infamous...

External finance is central for nascent entrepreneurs, people in the process of starting new ventures. We argue that nascent entrepreneurs use patents and prototypes in order to signal their ability to appropriate the returns from their innovation as well as the projectś feasibility. Our...

External finance is central for nascent entrepreneurs, people in the process of starting new ventures. We argue that nascent entrepreneurs use patents and prototypes in order to signal their ability to appropriate the returns from their innovation as well as the project’s feasibility. Our...

The aggregate amount of venture capital investments in non-publicly traded firms since 1980 is more than $390 billion. We test two economic hypotheses on the connection between venture capital investment and subsequent firm performance. We find that lagged VC investments scaled by industry...

This paper exploits the recent rise in corporate venture capitalists (CVC) to examine the effect of shareholders’ strategic incentives on firms’ IPO disclosure. CVCs’ investments are often driven by both financial and strategic incentives. I argue that, due to their strategic incentives,...