The impact of investor base on the costs of capital for IPOs

Abstract

This study examines the Merton (1987) ‘investor recognition’ hypothesis, which postulates that an increase in the total number of investors with prior knowledge of a firm will lower the expected returns of investors by reducing the ‘shadow costs’ arising from the lack of knowledge of a particular security; this will invariably result in an increase in the market value of the firm's shares. We analyze a unique dataset in this study, comprised of information on trading activities relating to 208 IPO firms obtained from the transaction record database of the Taiwan Stock Exchange. In contrast to prior studies, we employ the number of traders as a proxy for investors’ awareness of any given firm and find a discernible decline in the average daily abnormal returns in the second year after listing. Finally, the results confirm the association between investor recognition and the required rate of return.