We study the impact of country-level accounting conservatism on international IPO underpricing. Examining 13,285 IPOs from 36 countries, we find that IPOs are underpriced less in countries where existing public firms practice more accounting conservatism. The link between conservatism and...

We propose an “M&A activity” hypothesis as a partial explanation for IPO underpricing. When going public during active corporate control markets, managers may take actions intended to safeguard their control. In support of this conjecture, we find that pre-IPO M&A activity directly explains...