On Sarbanes-Oxley.

• Author: Rees, Matthew
• Position: Global market/economic trends - Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 - Brief article

"The U.S. share of IPOs began falling six years before Sarbanes-Oxley even existed. In 1996 about 60 percent of all IPOs took place on Wall Street. By 2001, only 8 percent did. In fact, the U.S. share has on average increased since then, despite Sarbanes-Oxley, to about 15 percent in 2005."

"So why the drop in IPOs and foreign-stock listings? As the Wall Street Journal and others have noted, a lot has to do with economic growth abroad. In 1980 the total value of shares listed in emerging markets like Brazil and India was 6.7 percent of the world total. By...