We read all newspaper articles to measure the pre-IPO media tone for 1,068 Chinese book-built IPOs issued from 2005–2013. We document significant and robust evidence that media tone is related to high IPO first-day returns and low long-run abnormal returns. One positive newspaper article can...

This paper employs quiet-period media tone as a proxy for investor sentiment in the IPO market and investigates its impact on primary-market demand and on short and long-run IPO performance. Using a sample of 1,068 book-built IPOs, it finds that pre-IPO quiet period media pessimism lowers...