IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/germec/v12y2011i1p11-32.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Underpricing of Initial Public Offerings at the Berlin Stock Exchange, 1870–96

Author

Listed:
  • Burhop Carsten

    (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Good, Kurt-Schumacher-Straße 10,Bonn, Germany)

Abstract

In this article, we evaluate underpricing of initial public offerings at the Berlin Stock Exchange between 1870 and 1896. In contrast to modern data, first-day returns were extraordinary low and averaged less than 5%, even during the speculative period of the early 1870s. Moreover, standard underpricing theories based on asymmetric information, signalling mechanisms or litigation risk cannot explain underpricing. In contrast to modern markets, underpricing was higher during hot issue markets. Finally, we show that cash-flow relevant information contained in the corporate charter was readily factored in the first market price. Thus, the historical capital market differed from today’s market, but seems to have been efficient.

Suggested Citation

  • Burhop Carsten, 2011. "The Underpricing of Initial Public Offerings at the Berlin Stock Exchange, 1870–96," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 11-32, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:germec:v:12:y:2011:i:1:p:11-32
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0475.2010.00502.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0475.2010.00502.x
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-0475.2010.00502.x?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Lehmann-Hasemeyer, Sibylle H. & Neumayer, Andreas, 2018. "The persistence of ownership inequality. Investors on the German stock exchanges, 1869 – 1945," Working Papers 8, German Research Foundation's Priority Programme 1859 "Experience and Expectation. Historical Foundations of Economic Behaviour", Humboldt University Berlin.
    2. Sibylle Lehmann-Hasemeyer & Jochen Streb, 2016. "The Berlin Stock Exchange in Imperial Germany: A Market for New Technology?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(11), pages 3558-3576, November.
    3. Buchner, Michael, 2018. "The Berlin Bourse in the London mirror: An asymmetric comparison of microstructures and the role of Germany's large banks in securities trading, c. 1860-1914," IBF Paper Series 01-18, IBF – Institut für Bank- und Finanzgeschichte / Institute for Banking and Financial History, Frankfurt am Main.
    4. Lehmann-Hasemeyer, Sibylle H. & Neumayer, Andreas, 2018. "The persistence of ownership inequality: Investors on the German stock exchanges, 1869-1945," Hohenheim Discussion Papers in Business, Economics and Social Sciences 20-2018, University of Hohenheim, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences.
    5. Sibylle Lehmann, 2011. "Taking Firms to the Stock Market: IPOs and the Importance of Universal Banks in Imperial Germany 1896-1913," Cologne Economic History papers 9, University of Cologne, Department of Economic and Business History, revised Mar 2011.

    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:bpj:germec:v:12:y:2011:i:1:p:11-32. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    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.