← Search

Journal of Financial Economics Vol. 15 No. 1-2 1986

Why new issues are underpriced

Kevin Rock

Harvard University

Abstract

This paper presents a model for the underpricing of initial public offerings. The argument depends upon the existence of a group of investors whose information is superior to that of the firm as well as that of all other investors. If the new shares are priced at their expected value, these priveleged investors crowd out the others when good issues are offered and they withdraw from the market when bad issues are offered. The offering firm must price the shares at a discount in order to guarantee that the uninformed investors purchase the issue.

DOI
10.1016/0304-405x(86)90054-1
Volume
15
Issue
1-2
Pages
187-212
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

Cite