IPO underperformance and the idiosyncratic risk puzzle

Honghui Chen and Minrong Zheng

Journal of Banking & Finance, 2021, vol. 131, issue C

Abstract: We investigate the relationship between IPO long-run underperformance (Ritter, 1991; Loughran and Ritter, 1995) and the idiosyncratic risk puzzle (Ang, Hodrick, Xing, and Zhang, 2006) or the phenomenon of abnormally low returns for stocks with high idiosyncratic risk. We find that IPO long-run underperformance is a manifestation of surprisingly low returns for high idiosyncratic risk stocks. IPO underperformance disappears after we control for idiosyncratic risk. On the other hand, we find that the idiosyncratic risk puzzle is magnified by IPO underperformance. Our results are robust to various specifications or sample requirements. We evaluate a couple of potential common causes for the two puzzles and conclude that investors’ preferences for stocks with lottery features is the primary mechanism linking the two puzzles.

Keywords: Idiosyncratic risk puzzle; IPO underperformance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:131:y:2021:i:c:s0378426621001497

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2021.106190

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