Financial regulation and IPOs: Evidence from the history of the Italian stock market

Abstract

This paper studies the impact of regulation on IPO markets using historical data. Regulatory interventions have different effects on the development of public equity markets under different conditions. Studying the whole population of 879 Italian IPOs from the unification of Italy (1861) through the present, we find that tightening regulatory changes improve IPO survival rates. In contrast, easing of regulations tends to harm IPO survival rates, without increasing the number of IPOs.