We argue that the number of firms going public changes over time in response to time variation in market conditions. We develop a model of optimal IPO timing in which IPO waves are caused by declines in expected market return, increases in expected aggregate profitability, or increases in prior...

We develop a model of the optimal initial public offering (IPO) decision in the presence of learning about the average profitability of a private firm. The entrepreneur trades off diversification benefits of going public against benefits of private control. Going public is optimal when the...