The World of Cross-Listings and Cross-Listings of the World: Challenging Conventional Wisdom

For years, there has prevailed a conventional wisdom rationalizing why firms pursue overseas listings. It argues that firms seek such opportunities to benefit from a lower cost of capital that arises because its shares become more accessible to global investors whose access would otherwise be restricted because of international investment barriers. Recently, much evidence has been assembled that challenges this conventional wisdom and, as a result, a number of new research initiatives have been proposed to understand better the motivation for overseas listings. The goal of this article is to survey, synthesize and critically review this most recent literature on international cross-listings.