December 2008
Intermediate to advanced
520 pages
43h 42m
English
Alexander Ljungqvist1aljungqv@stern.nyu.edu Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University, 44 West 4th Street, Suite 9-160, New York, NY 10012, USA1 Address for correspondence: Stern School of Business, New York University, Suite 9-160, 44 West Fourth Street, New York, NY 10012-1126. Phone 212-998-0304. Fax 212-995-4220.
When companies go public, the equity they sell in an initial public offering tends to be underpriced, resulting in a substantial price jump on the first day of trading. The underpricing discount in the United States averaged more than 20% during the 1990s, implying that firms left considerable amounts of money on the table. What explains this phenomenon?
This chapter reviews the principal ...