Equity-market liberalizations as country IPO's

摘要

Equity-market liberalizations make shares of common stock of local firms available to a new class of investors, foreign investors. Initial public offerings (IPO's) make shares in existing firms available to a new class of investors, the general public. Equity-market liberalizations and IPO's are similar events in that they increase the pool of investors who can invest in firms. We show that it is helpful to view equitymarket liberalizations as country IPO's and that doing so raises important issues for future research.