This paper investigates the effect of mandatory disclosure requirements for private firms on their decision to go public. Using detailed project-level data for biopharmaceutical firms, we explore the effects of a legal reform that exogenously required firms to publicly disclose information regarding clinical trials. Exploiting cross-sectional heterogeneity in firms' exposure to the regulation based on their internal development portfolios, we find that affected firms are significantly more likely to transition to public equity markets following the reform. Moreover, firms that go public because of the increased disclosure requirements subsequently reduce the size of their project portfolios while shifting to safer investments acquired externally. We provide additional evidence for the main hypothesis using a second setting: a 2006 German reform which enhanced the enforcement of mandatory disclosure requirements for private firms. The results suggest that private firms' general information environment and disclosure requirements influence the propensity of going public.

中文翻译：

---

对私营公司的强制性披露要求是否会增加上市倾向？

本文研究了对私营公司的强制披露要求对其上市决策的影响。使用生物制药公司的详细项目级数据，我们探讨了法律改革的影响，该改革要求公司公开披露有关临床试验的信息。利用基于内部发展组合的公司在监管中暴露的横截面异质性，我们发现受影响的公司在改革后更有可能过渡到公共股票市场。此外，由于披露要求增加而上市的公司随后会缩小项目组合的规模，同时转向更安全的外部投资。我们使用第二种设置为主要假设提供了额外的证据：2006 年的一项德国改革，加强了对私营公司强制披露要求的执行。结果表明，私营公司的一般信息环境和披露要求会影响上市倾向。