The going-public decision and rent-seeking activities: Evidence from Chinese private companies

Abstract This paper examines the determinants and consequences of going public for Chinese private companies during the process of reforms and opening up in China with a full sample that includes 584 initial public offerings (IPOs) of private companies and 584 of non-listed private companies from 2006 to 2014. Our results first reveal that the decision to go public is positively correlated to firm size and the market-to-book (MTB) ratio of the corresponding industry and negatively correlated to financial leverage and firm age. However, when considering the role of rent-seeking activities, the effect of the MTB ratio switches from positive to negative. The evidence also indicates that IPOs have a negative impact on firm performance, although they have a positive impact on the asset liability ratio and total assets afterwards. These findings offer several useful insights for policymakers and researchers.