Product Market Characteristics and the Choice between IPOs and Acquisitions
利用美国人口普查数据，分析了创业企业的产品市场特征如何影响其选择上市、被收购或保持私有。发现规模、全要素生产率、销售增长等因素显著增加IPO相对于收购的可能性。
Using unique U.S. Census data sets, we analyze how entrepreneurial firms’ product market characteristics affect their choice between going public, being acquired, or remaining private. Size, total factor productivity (TFP), sales growth, capital expenditure, market share, access to private funding, and human capital intensiveness significantly increase a private firm’s likelihood of an initial public offering (IPO) relative to an acquisition. Firms in industries with less information asymmetry and higher stock liquidity are more likely to choose an IPO over an acquisition. While TFP peaks around either form of exit, the rate of increase in TFP prior to acquisitions and the subsequent decrease is smaller than that around IPOs.