Survey_SW_2000

Abstract

The basis sample for this study is a sample of historical German stock prices for the period from 1870 to 1914. These data were compiled at the Center for Financial Studies in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. They contain monthly returns for almost 1,400 firms from six German stock exchanges. The IPOs in our sample were observed for 182 firms over the thirty-year period from September 1884 to May 1914. Of course, a lot more IPOs took place over this period, but only for these 182 companies all the data necessary for the analyses presented below were available. The firms in this sample belong to twelve of thirteen industries represented in the basis sample (containing close to 1,400 companies). The distribution of these 182 IPOs over time is not uniform as can be seen from figure 1. Partly due to the fact that reliable data are hardly available for this period we observe only nine issues before 1894. A first peak then occurs in (the first half of) 1896 with 20 IPOs, and the most offerings per year are found for 1899 (26). Afterwards IPO activity is decreasing again, and after 1906 with 16 issues there is no other year with at least ten IPOs until 1914.