Immediately following public offerings, underwriters often repurchase shares of poorly performing IPOs in an apparent attempt to stabilize the price. Using proprietary Nasdaq data for a large sample of IPOs, I study the price effects and cross-sectional determinants of price support. Some of the key findings are: (1) Price stabilization is substantial, inducing significant price rigidity at and below the offer price. Stabilization appears, at least in the short run, to raise the equilibrium stock price. (2) Many studies suggest that stabilization helps to mitigate information asymmetry problems in the IPO market. I find no evidence that stocks with larger ex-ante information asymmetries are stabilized more strongly. (3) The characteristics of the lead underwriter emerge as the strongest determinants of price support. Larger and more reputable investment banks stabilize more, perhaps to protect their reputations with investors. But there are substantial differences in price support even among the largest underwriters (after controlling for IPO characteristics and underwriter size). (4) Investment banks with retail brokerage operations stabilize much more than other large investment banks. This puzzling result seems inconsistent with the common view that stabilization benefits primarily institutional investors, and I outline and examine several alternative explanation

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The objective of this study is to measure the level of the European Union's (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) price support system (PSS) applied to producers in the EU-15 and in Turkey. The producer subsidy estimate (PSE) method has been used to determine protection levels for selected cereal products from the beginning of the application of the PSE method in 1986 to date. In addition, this study attempts to examine the empirical findings of the PSE in the light of CAP reforms and EU enlargements during the period 1986- 2003. The expected contribution of this study is to determine which support instruments, such as countervailing levies or direct payments (based on limited or unlimited area) against export subsidies, voluntary or compulsory set-aside measures and price interventions, are more appropriate for the CAP in reducing destabilizing effects on trade with selected products between the EU and Turkey with respect to distribution effects (how income is distributed between different groups involved in the production operation process). Does the current PSS of the CAP have positive effects on agricultural producers in Turkey as a non-member country? The major finding of this dissertation is the evaluation of benefits and costs of common agricultural policies of the EU on fair trade. The assessment of the PSE of the EU's CAP will be used to determine the impact of current support measures of the CAP reforms on fair trade and consumer welfare, and how the CAP measures can be reformed for the improvement of producer gain in accordance with fair trade. (author's abstract)

We compare the effectiveness of different climate policies in terms of emissions abatement and costs in the British and German electricity markets. The two countries follow different climate policies, allowing us to compare the effectiveness of a relatively low EU ETS carbon price in Germany with a significantly higher carbon price due to a unilateral top-up tax (the Carbon Price Support) in the UK. We first estimate the emissions offsetting effects of carbon pricing and of subsidized wind and solar feed-in, and then derive the abatement costs of one tonne of CO2 for the different policies. We find that a reasonably high price for emissions is the most cost-effective climate policy, while subsidizing wind is preferable to subsidizing solar power. A carbon price of around EURO 35 is enough in the UK to induce vast short-run fuel switching between coal- and gas-fired power plants, leading to significant emissions abatement at low costs. / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series