JOBS Act: Has It Brought Back the IPO?

Previous research has shown that initial public offerings (IPOs) have plummeted in the United States from historic norms and that global firms have stopped coming to the United States as well. In 2012, President Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, whose purpose was to improve access to public capital markets by alleviating or eliminating restrictions on emerging growth companies going public through an IPO. This, it was hoped, would increase job creation and stimulate economic growth. This study examines whether chief financial officers (CFOs) have started taking their firms public in the United States again and whether CFOs of global firms have reentered the U.S. market since the passage of the JOBS Act. The article also addresses whether global firms have reentered the U.S. market using dual‐class shares in IPOs to maintain control of the firms they have created.