To protect investors, securities regulation generally restrains entrepreneurial ventures from entering the stock market. Scholars and regulators contend that strong rules and requirements for listing are essential to prevent the market from failing. However, these constraints can also unduly...

We describe and analyze how a stock exchange can be used to finance emerging companies and to assume the role usually played by private VCs. We find that the Canadian public VC market has a success rate which is approximately four times the corresponding rate for private VC. The public VC market...

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...

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...

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...