• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.557-567
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• 2018

This paper studies the relationship between general investors' allotment ratio and underpricing for the companies that were newly listed in KOSDAQ market after the 20% rule, from March 2004 to December 2013, by empirical analysis. It is shown that the excess allotment ratio over 20% has a strong explanatory power for underpricing ratio under the 1% significance level. Furthermore, the general investors' allotment ratio is a significant explanatory variable of underpricing ratio under the 5% significance level. There are many hypotheses about underpricing, however, if underpricing is evident with high allocation ratio for general investors, it can be regarded as a signal of company's confidence in earnings after listing. In conclusion, this study reveals that general investors' allotment ratio can be used as a major explanatory variable that has a significant effect on the degree of undervaluation in the IPO market.