Does the U.S. IPO Market Require Further Regulatory Support?

Master's Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject Economics - Finance, grade: 1.5, Furtwangen University (Business School), course: MBA, language: English, abstract: This paper aims to divide the US financial markets into their three main components: the corporate sector, investment banking and institutional investors, represented by the asset management industry. This cross-disciplinary and holistic approach is based on an understanding of the IPO market as the intersection of these three main forces. This paper seeks to broaden the current debate and extend the traditional issuer-underwriter-investor model beyond the immediate ecosystem of IPO markets. The main objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive assessment of the key, systemic and underlying trends in these three underlying disciplines and to identify potential areas for regulatory action. This paper finds academic evidence in the area of public equity offerings that regulatory initiatives can be effective and tilt the balance between private and public equity finance towards more regulated and transparent markets. It is also essential to acknowledge that this rebalancing was supported by financial innovation and it remains doubtful whether the JOBS Act can be as effective in the absence of similar innovation at the core of the IPO product, which remains locked between excessive underwriting fees and unresolved conflicts of interest in the analyst community, a key support function. These areas require further and immediate regulatory action to restore the competitiveness of the IPO product and to preserve the integrity of the IPO market as a whole.