We analyze the primary market characteristics and the secondary market trading frictions of new stocks. IPOs issued in hot markets, with low offer price, low-reputation underwriters or no VC backing face higher liquidity frictions, higher information constraints, and worse short-sale...

Using a hand-collected data set of private firm acquisitions and IPOs, this paper develops the first empirical analysis in the literature of the “IPO valuation premium puzzle,” which refers to a situation where many private firms choose to be acquired rather than to go public at higher...

This study investigates the impact of the bank–firm relationship on IPO underpricing in China, an emerging economy with a bank-dominated financial system. Utilizing a hand-collected loan data for 902 Chinese IPO firms from 2004 to 2011, we document that the bank–firm relationship reduces the...

We consider the importance of legal opportunism as an explanation for observed litigation following a large sample of initial public offerings (IPOs). We characterize legal opportunism as litigation based on the potential to recover losses after negative stock price developments rather than the...

The lockup is an agreement between issuing firms and underwriting investment bankers that prohibits firm insiders from selling shares prior to lockup expiry. Using a manually corrected sample of 7546 SEOs between 1988 and 2007, this study investigates the role of these agreements by separately...

The study explores the growth of the Athens Stock Exchange through new listings and IPOs over the period 1880-1940. We examine institutional changes in exchange governance and listing requirements. On a theme that has not been addressed before, we find that simple listings were far more numerous...

This paper examines the impact of venture-capital backing of UK companies issuing shares at flotation on the characteristics of the lock-in agreements entered into by the existing shareholders, and on the abnormal returns realised around the expiry of the directors' lock-in agreements.The study...

We analyse the characteristics of lockup agreements of IPOs on the Neuer Markt and the Nouveau Marche from 1996 to 2000.Even though both markets were part of the same EuroNM network, the characteristics of their lockup agreements are substantially different.Firm characteristics have a major...

Between 1999 and 2007, WR Hambrecht has completed 19 IPOs in the U.S. using an auction mechanism. We analyze investor behavior and mechanism performance in these auctioned IPOs using detailed bidding data. The existence of some bids posted at high prices suggests that some investors (mostly...