Do Firms Issue More Equity When Markets Are More Liquid?

Fisher College of Business Working Paper No. 2013-03-10

Charles A. Dice Center Working Paper No. 2013-10

44 Pages Posted: 10 Jul 2013 Last revised: 23 Apr 2014

See all articles by René M. Stulz

René M. Stulz

Ohio State University (OSU) - Department of Finance; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)

Dimitrios Vagias

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Rotterdam School of Management (RSM)

Mathijs A. van Dijk

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR)

Date Written: April 20, 2014

Abstract

This paper investigates how public equity issuance is related to stock market liquidity. Using quarterly data on IPOs and SEOs in 36 countries over the period 1995-2008, we show that equity issuance is significantly and positively related to contemporaneous and lagged innovations in aggregate local market liquidity. This relation survives the inclusion of proxies for market timing, capital market conditions, growth prospects, asymmetric information, and investor sentiment. Liquidity considerations are as important in explaining equity issuance as market timing considerations. The relation between liquidity and issuance is driven by the quarters with the greatest deterioration in liquidity and is stronger for IPOs than for SEOs. Firms are more likely to carry out private instead of public equity issues and to postpone public equity issues when market liquidity worsens. Overall, we interpret our findings as supportive of the view that market liquidity is an important determinant of equity issuance that is distinct from other determinants examined to date.

Keywords: International finance, IPOs, SEOs, market liquidity, market timing

JEL Classification: G32, F30, G15

Suggested Citation

Stulz, Rene M. and Vagias, Dimitrios and van Dijk, Mathijs A., Do Firms Issue More Equity When Markets Are More Liquid? (April 20, 2014). Fisher College of Business Working Paper No. 2013-03-10, Charles A. Dice Center Working Paper No. 2013-10, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2291647 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2291647

Rene M. Stulz (Contact Author)

Ohio State University (OSU) - Department of Finance ( email )

2100 Neil Avenue
Columbus, OH 43210-1144
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.cob.ohio-state.edu/fin/faculty/stulz

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
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European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)

c/o the Royal Academies of Belgium
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Belgium

Dimitrios Vagias

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) ( email )

P.O. Box 1738
Room T08-21
3000 DR Rotterdam, 3000 DR
Netherlands

Mathijs A. Van Dijk

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) ( email )

Burgemeester Oudlaan 50
3000 DR Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland 3062PA
Netherlands

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