Even if the competitiveness of the Canadian securities market is a central argument in the ongoing debate related to the proposal of a single securities commission, the exact level and the evolution of this market are largely undocumented. The numerous changes that modified the structure of the...

Private placements provided by institutional or individual accredited investors are becoming an important financing tool for small public firms worldwide. However, private placement issuers offer, on average, poor returns. We explain this puzzle using 2,987 traditional private placements by...

We examine whether risk, timing or mispricing hypotheses can explain the underperformance of private and public equity issuers, in Canada, where both categories share several common characteristics. Adding an investment risk factor to the TFPM reduces, but does not eliminate, the...

Several governments have designed tax incentive programs to promote small business finance, yet evidence of their efficiency is very scarce. This article analyzes the QBIC program, introduced in Quebec to help capitalize SME. Individual investors in holding companies that finance one or more...

Some analysts and policy makers consider that the growth of New Technology Based Firms (NTBF) is impeded by an insufficient supply of capital. In Canada, as in other jurisdictions, the public authorities have interceded to fill this equity gap by increasing the supply of funds. However, several...

Canadian listed firms issue private offerings more often than public offerings. Yet the issuing cost of private investments in public equity (PIPEs) has neither been analyzed nor compared with the cost of conventional seasoned equity offerings (SEOs). We examine a sample of 2,108 PIPEs and 1,990...

In Canada, a venture stock market lists micro-capitalization firms that are at a pre-revenue stage, and competes with both formal and informal venture capital (VC). This market provides a higher rate of return and is able to provide seven times more new listings to the main exchange than the VC...

To protect investors, securities regulation generally restrains entrepreneurial ventures from entering the stock market. Scholars and regulators contend that strong rules and requirements for listing are essential to prevent the market from failing. However, these constraints can also unduly...

We describe and analyze how a stock exchange can be used to finance emerging companies and to assume the role usually played by private VCs. We find that the Canadian public VC market has a success rate which is approximately four times the corresponding rate for private VC. The public VC market...