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Journal of Banking & Finance Vol. 35 No. 5 2011

Advantageous innovation and imitation in the underwriting market for corporate securities

Helios Herrera1; Enrique Schroth2

1 Columbia University · 2 University of Amsterdam

open access

Abstract

Investment banks that develop new corporate securities systematically lead the new underwriting market despite being imitated early by equally competitive rivals. We study how innovators and imitators set underwriting fees in order to identify empirically the source of this advantage. Using data of innovative securities since 1985, we do find that innovators set systematically higher fees than imitators. This premium decreases as more issues occur, and faster for later generation products. Imitation is also quicker for later generations. This evidence supports the hypothesis that the innovator has superior skills in structuring any given issue of the new security.

DOI
10.1016/j.jbankfin.2010.09.019
Volume
35
Issue
5
Pages
1097-1113
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref bibtex:phds-export.bib

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