Social Capital and the Pricing of Initial Public Offerings

Abstract

Using a sample of 4,892 IPOs in the United States from 1990 to 2019, we establish that the level of social capital in the county of the IPO firm’s headquarters is negatively associated with the level of IPO underpricing. The relation holds for a range of robustness tests, including those addressing endogeneity. Additionally, the relation is weaker among IPO firms with less information uncertainty, and stronger for IPO firms with more agency problems. Overall, our results demonstrate the importance of social capital as an informal contracting mechanism in enhancing the pricing and performance of IPOs.