Three Anomalies of Initial Public Offerings: A brief Literature Review

Briefing Notes in Economics – Issue No. 58, September/October 2003 Jong-Hwan Yi 8an easy humour. In his direction ofdissertations and theses, he brought outthe best in candidates.It is doubtful that anyone at anyuniversity has been nominated moreoften for or has received more, teachingawards. Deservedly, his awards includedan Outstanding Faculty Award forTeaching and a University TeachingAward. In April 1999 Jim also wasawarded by FSU a ProfessionalExcellence Award that recognizesteaching and research excellence, as wellas service to the university and to one’sprofession.Gap’s audience included many more thanthose at Florida State University. Withinthe academic community of economistsin the United States he probably was bestknown for his work on a particular classof production functions, in which he wasa noted pioneer. Outside the country—inthe Asia-Pacific region—he was notedfor his more recent publications oneconomic growth, internationalcompetitiveness, and financial crises. Inbetween he developed an econometricmodel for Croatia (and the formerYugoslavia) and published research onthe economic growth of the Africannations.Jim’s career was distinguished by hiscourage to pursue those theories andpolicies that he considered mostimportant, irrespective of current fadsand fantasies in economics or within hisacademic home. Gapinski remained trueto his inner voice and was a steadfastKeynesian or Post Keynesian. As anexcellent swimmer, he was quite awarethat he was swimming against thecurrent, but his personal distaste forcareerism and his strong preference topursue the truth even when such a pursuithad, at least temporarily, fallen out offashion is particularly admirable. Thefailures in the kind of economics andpolicies that he opposed vindicate hispriorities. In the midst of theseaccomplishments he found time andenergy to do clever, interesting, andunique research on the economics ofperforming Shakespeare (culturaleconomics) that appeared in the two toprankedeconomics journals. He also had akeen appreciation for Shakespeare’s useof humour, especially puns.He accomplished much in too brief a lifebecause of his great energy, still there inhis final days. He was chosen by so manyto serve so often because he wasoutwardly optimistic even when the oddswere against him—even in his finalstruggle. Besides, he was skilled, smart,and amazingly efficient. Beyond, he feltthat service to others was a natural(perhaps Catholic) obligation withinherent rewards.Colleagues, family, friends, and studentsalike remember his essence—a ray ofsunshine lighting up our lives.Ray CanterberyIN MEMORY: Franco ModiglianiFormer Richmond conference delegate,Professor Franco Modigliani, died onFriday 26 th September 2003, he was 85years old. The editor had the pleasure ofco-hosting a workshop on EuropeanUnemployment in the late 1990s at whichProfessor Modigliani provided thekeynote speech. The following is anexcerpt of a piece written to markProfessor Modigliani’s death inSeptember.… Professor Franco Modigliani won theNobel Prize in Economics in 1985 for hispioneering analyses of savings andfinancial markets. Professor Modiglianiand an associate, Merton Miller,concluded that the market value of acompany had no genuine relationship tothe size and structure of its debt. Instead,they found, stock market values aredetermined mainly by what enterprisesare expected to earn in the future.