Shelf Registration and the Market for Seasoned Equity Offerings

This article documents that few industrial equity offerings are registered under the shelf registration procedure (Securities Exchange Commission Rule 415) despite recent empirical evidence of lower costs for shelf-registered offerings. Many firms use the shelf procedure for offerings of senior securities while using the nonshelf procedure for equity offerings. An explanation for these puzzling findings is given based on the lack of underwriter certification provided by the shelf procedure. Empirical results are consistent with the explanation.