Specified Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) are a special type of public companies currently available to investors in financial markets. As an investment vehicle, modern SPACs are traced back to 18th century England where blank checks were first mentioned as blind pools during the infamous...

Our hand-collected sample of 298 U.S. SPACs reveals that the modal SPAC CEO is a 50-year-old male MBA graduate with substantial financial expertise. In accordance with signaling theory, greater reputation gained through prior CEO experience in public companies is linked to larger SPACs. As the...

We examine the wave pattern of U.S. SPAC IPOs using a hand-collected data set of the entire SPAC population since their emergence in 2003. We find that both the SPAC volume and SPAC share of total IPOs are negatively related to market-wide uncertainty (VIX) and time-varying risk aversion...

We examine the characteristics of Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) focused on green causes. The growing importance of SPACs in financial markets has led to an increased presence of entrepreneurs raising capital to fund environmently friendly companies. We examine the structural...