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Review of Financial Studies Vol. 33 No. 12 2020

The Deregulation of the Private Equity Markets and the Decline in IPOs

Michael Ewens1; Joan Farre-Mensa2

1 California Institute of Technology · 2 University of Illinois at Chicago

open access

Abstract

The deregulation of securities laws—in particular the National Securities Markets Improvement Act (NSMIA) of 1996—has increased the supply of private capital to late-stage private startups, which are now able to grow to a size that few private firms used to reach. NSMIA is one of a number of factors that have changed the going-public versus staying-private trade-off, helping bring about a new equilibrium where fewer startups go public, and those that do are older. This new equilibrium does not reflect an initial public offering (IPO) market failure. Rather, founders are using their increased bargaining power vis-à-vis investors to stay private longer.

DOI
10.1093/rfs/hhaa053
Volume
33
Issue
12
Pages
5463-5509
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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