IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/joares/v55y2017i4p795-836.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The JOBS Act and the Costs of Going Public

Author

Listed:
  • SUSAN CHAPLINSKY
  • KATHLEEN WEISS HANLEY
  • S. KATIE MOON

Abstract

We examine the effects of Title I of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act for a sample of 312 emerging growth companies (EGCs) that filed for an initial public offering (IPO) from April 5, 2012 through April 30, 2015. We find no reduction in the direct costs of issuance, accounting, legal, or underwriting fees for EGC IPOs. Underpricing, an indirect cost of issuance that increases an issuer's cost of capital, is significantly higher for EGCs compared to other IPOs. More importantly, greater underpricing is present only for larger firms that are newly eligible for scaled disclosure under the Act. Overall, we find little evidence that the Act in its first three years has reduced the measurable costs of going public. Although there are benefits of the Act that issuers appear to value, they should be balanced against the higher costs of capital that can occur after its enactment.

Suggested Citation

  • Susan Chaplinsky & Kathleen Weiss Hanley & S. Katie Moon, 2017. "The JOBS Act and the Costs of Going Public," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(4), pages 795-836, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:joares:v:55:y:2017:i:4:p:795-836
    DOI: 10.1111/1475-679X.12172
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-679X.12172
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1475-679X.12172?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Re‐Jin Guo & Baruch Lev & Nan Zhou, 2004. "Competitive Costs of Disclosure by Biotech IPOs," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(2), pages 319-355, May.
    2. Michael Greenstone & Paul Oyer & Annette Vissing-Jorgensen, 2006. "Mandated Disclosure, Stock Returns, and the 1964 Securities Acts Amendments," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(2), pages 399-460.
    3. Peter Iliev, 2010. "The Effect of SOX Section 404: Costs, Earnings Quality, and Stock Prices," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(3), pages 1163-1196, June.
    4. Sherman, Ann E. & Titman, Sheridan, 2002. "Building the IPO order book: underpricing and participation limits with costly information," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 3-29, July.
    5. Berger, Philip G., 2011. "Challenges and opportunities in disclosure research--A discussion of [`]the financial reporting environment: Review of the recent literature'," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1-2), pages 204-218, February.
    6. Hsuan‐Chi Chen & Jay R. Ritter, 2000. "The Seven Percent Solution," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(3), pages 1105-1131, June.
    7. Katrina Ellis & Roni Michaely & Maureen O'Hara, 2000. "When the Underwriter Is the Market Maker: An Examination of Trading in the IPO Aftermarket," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(3), pages 1039-1074, June.
    8. Dambra, Michael & Field, Laura Casares & Gustafson, Matthew T., 2015. "The JOBS Act and IPO volume: Evidence that disclosure costs affect the IPO decision," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 121-143.
    9. Nemit Shroff & Amy X. Sun & Hal D. White & Weining Zhang, 2013. "Voluntary Disclosure and Information Asymmetry: Evidence from the 2005 Securities Offering Reform," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(5), pages 1299-1345, December.
    10. Sudipto Bhattacharya & Jay R. Ritter, 1983. "Innovation and Communication: Signalling with Partial Disclosure," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 50(2), pages 331-346.
    11. Berger, Philip G., 2011. "Challenges and opportunities in disclosure research—A discussion of ‘the financial reporting environment: Review of the recent literature’," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 204-218.
    12. McCrary, Justin, 2008. "Manipulation of the running variable in the regression discontinuity design: A density test," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 698-714, February.
    13. Maksimovic, Vojislav & Pichler, Pegaret, 2001. "Technological Innovation and Initial Public Offerings," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 14(2), pages 459-494.
    14. Miles Livingston & Lei Zhou, 2002. "The Impact of Rule 144A Debt Offerings Upon Bond Yields and Underwriter Fees," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 31(4), Winter.
    15. Dye, Ronald A., 2001. "An evaluation of "essays on disclosure" and the disclosure literature in accounting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1-3), pages 181-235, December.
    16. Beyer, Anne & Cohen, Daniel A. & Lys, Thomas Z. & Walther, Beverly R., 2010. "The financial reporting environment: Review of the recent literature," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 296-343, December.
    17. Jay R. Ritter, 2011. "Equilibrium in the Initial Public Offerings Market," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 3(1), pages 347-374, December.
    18. Benveniste, Lawrence M. & Spindt, Paul A., 1989. "How investment bankers determine the offer price and allocation of new issues," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 343-361.
    19. Core, John E., 2001. "A review of the empirical disclosure literature: discussion," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 441-456, September.
    20. Brad Badertscher & Bjorn Jorgensen & Sharon Katz & William Kinney, 2014. "Public Equity and Audit Pricing in the United States," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 303-339, May.
    21. Denis, David J, 1991. "Shelf Registration and the Market for Seasoned Equity Offerings," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(2), pages 189-212, April.
    22. Megginson, William L & Weiss, Kathleen A, 1991. "Venture Capitalist Certification in Initial Public Offerings," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(3), pages 879-903, July.
    23. Boone, Audra L. & Floros, Ioannis V. & Johnson, Shane A., 2016. "Redacting proprietary information at the initial public offering," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(1), pages 102-123.
    24. Susan Chaplinsky & Latha Ramchand, 2004. "The Impact of SEC Rule 144A on Corporate Debt Issuance by International Firms," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 77(4), pages 1073-1098, October.
    25. Hanley, Kathleen Weiss, 1993. "The underpricing of initial public offerings and the partial adjustment phenomenon," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 231-250, October.
    26. Alexander Borisov & Andrew Ellul & Merih Sevilir, 2015. "Access to Public Capital Markets and Employment Growth," CSEF Working Papers 399, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    27. Gao, Xiaohui & Ritter, Jay R. & Zhu, Zhongyan, 2013. "Where Have All the IPOs Gone?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 48(6), pages 1663-1692, December.
    28. Verrecchia, Robert E., 2001. "Essays on disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1-3), pages 97-180, December.
    29. Christian Leuz & Peter D. Wysocki, 2016. "The Economics of Disclosure and Financial Reporting Regulation: Evidence and Suggestions for Future Research," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 525-622, May.
    30. Autore, Don M. & Kumar, Raman & Shome, Dilip K., 2008. "The revival of shelf-registered corporate equity offerings," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 32-50, February.
    31. Clinton, Sarah B. & White, Joshua T. & Woidtke, Tracie, 2014. "Differences in the information environment prior to seasoned equity offerings under relaxed disclosure regulation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 59-78.
    32. Bushee, Brian J. & Leuz, Christian, 2005. "Economic consequences of SEC disclosure regulation: evidence from the OTC bulletin board," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 233-264, June.
    33. Healy, Paul M. & Palepu, Krishna G., 2001. "Information asymmetry, corporate disclosure, and the capital markets: A review of the empirical disclosure literature," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 405-440, September.
    34. Tim Loughran & Jay Ritter, 2004. "Why Has IPO Underpricing Changed Over Time?," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 33(3), Fall.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. John Donovan, 2021. "Financial Reporting and Entrepreneurial Finance: Evidence from Equity Crowdfunding," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(11), pages 7214-7237, November.
    2. Fred E. Huibers, 2020. "Towards an Optimal IPO Mechanism," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-14, June.
    3. Divakaruni, Anantha & Jones, Howard, 2021. "Disclosure, Firm Growth, and the JOBS Act," SocArXiv 3zumb, Center for Open Science.
    4. Jason Bergner & Marcus R. Brooks & Binod Guragai, 2019. "Examining the Decision to Opt In versus Opt Out of Section 107 of the JOBS Act of 2012: Determinants and Consequences," Accounting and Finance Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 8(2), pages 108-108, May.
    5. Ewens, Michael & Xiao, Kairong & Xu, Ting, 2020. "Regulatory Costs of Being Public: Evidence from Bunching Estimation," SocArXiv pdv8n, Center for Open Science.
    6. Florysiak, David & Schandlbauer, Alexander, 2022. "Experts or charlatans? ICO analysts and white paper informativeness," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    7. Maghyereh, Aktham I. & Awartani, Basel, 2018. "The factors influencing the decision to list on Abu Dhabi securities exchange," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 89-103.
    8. Pinto, Jedson, 2023. "Mandatory disclosure and learning from external market participants: Evidence from the JOBS act," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(1).
    9. Yan Lu & Debanjan Mitra & David Musto & Sugata Ray, 2020. "Can Brands Circumvent Marketing Regulations? Exploiting Umbrella Branding in Financial Markets," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(1), pages 71-91, January.
    10. Gao, Shenghao & Brockman, Paul & Meng, Qingbin & Yan, Xuemin, 2020. "Differences of opinion, institutional bids, and IPO underpricing," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    11. Balogh, Attila & Creedy, Usha & Wright, Danika, 2022. "Time to acquire: Regulatory burden and M&A activity," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    12. Dambra, Michael & Gustafson, Matthew T. & Pisciotta, Kevin, 2021. "What is the effect of an additional dollar of IPO proceeds?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    13. Chu, Yongqiang & Liu, Ming & Zhang, Shu, 2022. "The JOBS Act and mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    14. Thomas Chemmanur & Jie (Jack) He & Xiao (Shaun) Ren & Tao Shu, 2020. "The Disappearing IPO Puzzle: New Insights from Proprietary U.S. Census Data on Private Firms," Working Papers 20-20, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    15. Peng, Xuan & Wang, Xiongyuan & Chan, Kam C., 2020. "Does supplier stability matter in initial public offering pricing?," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 225(C).
    16. Dambra, Michael & Field, Laura Casares & Gustafson, Matthew T. & Pisciotta, Kevin, 2018. "The consequences to analyst involvement in the IPO process: Evidence surrounding the JOBS Act," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 302-330.
    17. Śliwiński Paweł & Ablewski Szymon & Gemra Kamil & Łukowski Michał, 2022. "Where is the missing value? Evidence from the game industry IPOs underpricing in Poland," International Journal of Management and Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of World Economy, vol. 58(4), pages 335-350, December.
    18. Gullapalli, Rachita & Knyazeva, Anzhela, 2020. "Foreign issuers in emerging growth company IPOs," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    19. Autore, Don M. & Jones, Timothy & Kovacs, Tunde & Peterson, David R., 2021. "Confidential marketing in seasoned equity offers," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    20. Badryah Alhusaini & Kimball L. Chapman & Hal D. White, 2023. "Private disclosure and myopia: evidence from the JOBS act," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 1570-1617, September.
    21. Chun Zhou & Wenyu Zhou & Jiajun Lu, 2021. "The Short-Term Impacts of the Registration-Based IPO Reform in China: Towards a More Sustainable Equity Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-17, October.
    22. Gipper, Brandon, 2021. "The economic effects of expanded compensation disclosures," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1).
    23. Gustafson, Matthew T. & Iliev, Peter, 2017. "The effects of removing barriers to equity issuance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(3), pages 580-598.
    24. Michael Dambra & Matthew Gustafson, 2021. "Do the Burdens to Being Public Affect the Investment and Innovation of Newly Public Firms?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(1), pages 594-616, January.
    25. Dimitrios Gounopoulos & Georgios Loukopoulos & Panagiotis Loukopoulos, 2021. "CEO education and the ability to raise capital," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 67-99, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrew J. Leone & Steve Rock & Michael Willenborg, 2007. "Disclosure of Intended Use of Proceeds and Underpricing in Initial Public Offerings," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 111-153, March.
    2. Christian Leuz & Peter D. Wysocki, 2016. "The Economics of Disclosure and Financial Reporting Regulation: Evidence and Suggestions for Future Research," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 525-622, May.
    3. Boone, Audra L. & Floros, Ioannis V. & Johnson, Shane A., 2016. "Redacting proprietary information at the initial public offering," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(1), pages 102-123.
    4. Jeppsson, Hans, 2018. "Initial public offerings, subscription precommitments and venture capital participation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 650-668.
    5. Gullapalli, Rachita & Knyazeva, Anzhela, 2020. "Foreign issuers in emerging growth company IPOs," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    6. Divakaruni, Anantha & Jones, Howard, 2021. "Disclosure, Firm Growth, and the JOBS Act," SocArXiv 3zumb, Center for Open Science.
    7. Shroff, Nemit & Verdi, Rodrigo S. & Yost, Benjamin P., 2017. "When does the peer information environment matter?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 183-214.
    8. Dambra, Michael & Field, Laura Casares & Gustafson, Matthew T., 2015. "The JOBS Act and IPO volume: Evidence that disclosure costs affect the IPO decision," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 121-143.
    9. Badryah Alhusaini & Kimball L. Chapman & Hal D. White, 2023. "Private disclosure and myopia: evidence from the JOBS act," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 1570-1617, September.
    10. Hanley, Kathleen Weiss & Hoberg, Gerard, 2012. "Litigation risk, strategic disclosure and the underpricing of initial public offerings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(2), pages 235-254.
    11. Cyrus Aghamolla & Richard T. Thakor, 2022. "Do Mandatory Disclosure Requirements for Private Firms Increase the Propensity of Going Public?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(3), pages 755-804, June.
    12. Bajo, Emanuele & Chemmanur, Thomas J. & Simonyan, Karen & Tehranian, Hassan, 2016. "Underwriter networks, investor attention, and initial public offerings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 376-408.
    13. Signori, Andrea, 2018. "Zero-revenue IPOs," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 106-121.
    14. Jeon, Jin Q. & Lee, Cheolwoo & Nasser, Tareque & Via, M. Tony, 2015. "Multiple lead underwriter IPOs and firm visibility," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 128-149.
    15. Daniel Aobdia, 2018. "Employee mobility, noncompete agreements, product-market competition, and company disclosure," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 296-346, March.
    16. Basu, Debarati & Sen, Kaustav, 2022. "Organizational form and access to capital: The role of regulatory interventions," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3).
    17. Natalia Matanova & Tanja Steigner & Bingsheng Yi & Qiancheng Zheng, 2019. "Going concern opinions and IPO pricing accuracy," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 195-238, July.
    18. Dambra, Michael & Field, Laura Casares & Gustafson, Matthew T. & Pisciotta, Kevin, 2018. "The consequences to analyst involvement in the IPO process: Evidence surrounding the JOBS Act," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 302-330.
    19. John M. Barrios & Jung Ho Choi & Yael V. Hochberg & Jinhwan Kim & Miao Liu, 2020. "Informing Entrepreneurs: Public Corporate Disclosure and New Business Formation," Working Papers 2020-92, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    20. Re-Jin Guo, 2005. "Information Collection and IPO Underpricing," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 5-19, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:joares:v:55:y:2017:i:4:p:795-836. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-8456 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.