TY  - JOUR
AU  - Jovanovic,Boyan
AU  - Rousseau,Peter L.
TI  - Why Wait?  A Century of Life Before IPO
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8081
PY  - 2001
Y2  - January 2001
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8081
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8081.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Boyan Jovanovic
New York University
Department of Economics
19 W. 4th Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY  10012
Tel: 212/998-8953
Fax: 212/995-4186
E-Mail: Boyan.Jovanovic@nyu.edu

Peter L. Rousseau
Department of Economics
Vanderbilt University
VU Station B #351819
2301 Vanderbilt Place
Nashville, TN 37235-1819
Tel: 615/343-2466
E-Mail: peter.l.rousseau@vanderbilt.edu
AB  - Firms that entered the stock market in the 1990s were younger than any earlier cohort since World War I.  Surprisingly, however, firms that IPO'd at the close of the 19th century were just as young as the companies that are entering today.  We argue here that the electrification-era and the IT-era firms came in young because the technologies that they brought in were too productive to be kept out very long. The model assumes that the stage before IPO is a learning period during which the firm refines the idea before committing to it at the IPO stage. The better the idea, the higher is the opportunity cost of a delay in its implementation, and the earlier the firm will have its IPO.
ER  -