Can the Market Add and Subtract? Mispricing in Tech Stock Carve-outs

S-Tier
Journal: Journal of Political Economy
Year: 2003
Volume: 111
Issue: 2
Pages: 227-268

Score contribution per author:

4.022 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Recent equity carve-outs in U.S. technology stocks appear to violate a basic premise of financial theory: identical assets have identical prices. In our 19982000 sample, holders of a share of company A are expected to receive x shares of company B, but the price of A is less than x times the price of B. A prominent example involves 3Com and Palm. Arbitrage does not eliminate this blatant mispricing due to short-sale constraints, so that B is overpriced but expensive or impossible to sell short. Evidence from options prices shows that shorting costs are extremely high, eliminating exploitable arbitrage opportunities.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:ucp:jpolec:v:111:y:2003:i:2:p:227-268
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25