Three Essays on The Effects of The Exchange Act Rule 12h-6 on Cross-Listings of Foreign Firms in The U.S. Market

The 2007 Exchange Act Rule 12h-6 relaxes the deregistration requirements for the U.S.-listed foreign firms to leave the U.S. market, opening an opportunity to examine the benefit and costs of listing in the U.S market for foreign firms. Using a sample of all U.S.-exchange cross-listing events during 1998-2012, the results document that the U.S. exchanges are more likely to attract a larger pool of foreign listing activities in the post-Rule 12h-6 period. This increased attractiveness of the U.S market, however, is worrisome as the post-Rule 12h-6 listings appear to be more pronounced among firms from countries with weaker investor protection. Likewise, the critical evidence, including a substantial decline in valuation premiums of U.S. cross-listing, and a significant increase in valuation gap between the U.S. domestic and the U.S.-listing foreign firms, raises more concern about the adverse impact of the new rule. Overall, the results suggest that while the rule enhanced the attractiveness of the U.S. market, its unintended consequences such as the weakening disclosure requirements and protection system can provoke a moral hazard issue in the U.S. cross-listing and ultimately may imperil the supremacy of the U.S. capital market