Using unique datasets on investor bidding and on investment bankers' biography, we examine the role of individual investment bankers in the process of IPO pricing. We find that when an investment banker has a social connection with a mutual fund manager, this manager is significantly more likely to (1) participate in the IPO, (2) submit above average bid prices, (3) realize lower IPO returns. The effect of investment bankers' social relationships is more pronounced when the issuer has low accounting quality and/or when the underwriter is a small bank. Further evidence shows that social relationships between investment bankers and fund managers reduce IPO underpricing. Overall, our findings suggest that social interactions help individual investment bankers to efficiently exchange value-relevant information with IPO investors.

ABSTRACT Relying on the frequency of typos in engagement partners’ graduate theses to measure their conscientiousness, we find that more conscientious partners conduct higher-quality audits, evident in that they are more likely to require an audit adjustment. Our core results hold for both upward and downward adjustments, implying that being conscientious is not equivalent to being overly conservative. Consistent with DeAngelo’s (1981) theory, cross-sectional evidence suggests that the role that partner conscientiousness plays in audit quality comes through both the auditor competence and independence channels. Additionally, we find that the frequency of partner thesis typos is negatively associated with auditor effort. Collectively, our evidence implies that engagement partner conscientiousness plays a major role in shaping audit outcomes. Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text. JEL Classifications: M42.