This paper explains fluctuations in the number of initial public offerings (IPOs) between 1876 and 2015 in the Netherlands. We test an econometric model and find that the number of IPOs is strongly related to the economic growth and the size of the stock exchange. We also find that IPOs are timed to coincide with favorable market conditions. Our model explains almost 50 percent of the fluctuations and most of the hot markets. To further understand IPO waves, we conduct a descriptive analysis, which yields two additional causes for hot markets, i.e., high capital needs and investors’ expectations for specific industries.
We investigate firms' initial stock and bond issues in public capital markets and explain fluctuations in these IPOs over time. We study Belgium from 1839 to 1935, which provides a setting with poor investor protection, no tax distortions, and changing regulations. We find that economic growth induces stock and bond IPOs and that the issuers time offerings such that they coincide with favorable market conditions. Even though in 1873, regulation was abruptly relaxed, we find no evidence of increases in the number of IPOs. Finally, we show that stock and bond IPOs do not interact when controlling for the determinants of these IPOs.
Research into the benefits of underwritten issues has been conducted primarily in settings that exhibit information asymmetries between issuing firms, financial intermediaries, and investors. This paper examines, during the interwar period, an era characterized by longstanding relationships between issuers, banks, and investors, the pricing and choice of method for offering shares of Dutch IPOs. Offering method in this setting is related mainly to the volume of the issue open for subscription prior to listing. The larger the volume, the more firms tended towards an underwritten offering. The pricing is found to be unrelated to offering method as well as to variables that theoretically proxy information asymmetries. The relatively low level of underpricing largely fluctuates with past investor sentiment.
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