We examine how liquidity and return concerns at large mutual funds explain their diminished participation in small IPOs since the late 1990s. Using 5,825 IPOs and portfolio-level information for 37,052 funds, we exploit Russia's 1998 debt default as an exogenous shock to funds' liquidity...

We examine firm lifecycles of 3,081 IPOs from 1996-2012. We find that small IPOs have a different lifecycle than other, larger companies. Within five years of an IPO, only 55% of small IPOs remain listed on a public exchange, compared to 61.3% and 67.1% for middle and large capitalized...

Cash proceeds from employees' exercise of options are substantial, totaling over $1 trillion in aggregate since 1985. Option exercises are unlikely to inform us about how contemporaneous conditions influence managers' motives to issue, because the option grant is jointly a compensation decision,...