This study empirically examines the impact of various competitive cost proxies
on the extent of product-related information disclosed by biotech initial
public offerings (IPOs) in their prospectuses. The choice of biotech companies,
which operate in a fiercely competitive environment, crystalizes the
importance of competitive disclosure costs. The focus on product-related information
is aimed at a disclosure set for which potential competitive harm
is a priori substantial. Our empirical analyses establish three disclosure determinants:
the stage of product development, availability of patent protection,
and venture capital backing. Additionally, we find the relative size of ownership
retained by pre-IPO owners to be negatively related to the extent of
disclosure, as predicted by signaling models. We also document the expected
inverse relation between the extent of information conveyed by the biotech
IPOs and widely used measures of information asymmetry: the bid-ask spread
and quoted depth, as well as stock return volatility.