Abstract

​There are more Israeli firms listed in New York than firms from any other foreign country, except Canada. Using data

on Israeli IPO's in New York and Tel Aviv in the 1990s, we show that firms issuing equity in New York are high-tech

and export-oriented. We interpret the results as evidence that US capital markets are better able to evaluate firms with

few tangible assets. We also show that New York IPO's. exhibit significantly higher post-issue returns than Tel-Aviv IPO's.

We suggest that Israeli corporations signal that they are of high quality by issuing in the US, so that good firms prefer to list

their shares there, rather than domestically. Finally, we present similarities between Israeli and Dutch stock issues in the US.


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