This paper examines the book building mechanism for marketing initial public offerings. We present a model where the underwriter selects a group of investors along with a pricing and allocation mechanism in a way that maximizes the information generated during the process of going public at a...

We document a somewhat surprising regularity: of the many countries that have used IPO auctions, virtually all have abandoned them. The common explanations given for the lack of popularity of the auction method in the US, viz., issuer reluctance to try a new experimental method, and underwriter...

In this paper we present a comprehensive comparison of IPO placement methods in over 50 countries. We find that out of the three primary methods, fixed price public o ffers, auctions, and book building, auctions are least popular with issuers. Since auctions allow for price discovery while...

There is a global trend in initial public offerings towards the increased use of book building, the primary US method. A key difference between book building and other methods such as auctions is that, with book building, the underwriter has total discretion in allocating shares, allowing...

There is a global trend in initial public offerings towards the increased use of book building, the primary US method. A key difference between book building and other methods such as auctions is that, with book building, the underwriter has total discretion in allocating shares, allowing...

Using a unique dataset of complete bid information for every IPO auction in Taiwan during 1995-2000, we examine the behaviors and returns of two groups - institutional and retail investors - in a setting in which underwriters do not have pricing or allocation discretion. We find that the bids of...

We examine how experience affects the decisions of individual investors and institutions in IPO auctions to bid in subsequent auctions, and their bidding returns. We track bidding histories for all 31,476 individual investors and 1,232 institutional investors across all 84 IPO auctions during...