Ep.97 – Michael Klausner on SPACs

Michael Klausner, professor of business and law at Stanford University, joins the Business Scholarship Podcast to discuss his article A Sober Look at SPACs, which was written with co-authors Michael Ohlrogge and Emily Ruan. In this paper, Klausner and his co-authors conduct an empirical examination of special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), finding that in their sample period SPAC structures created $3.60 in dilution per $10 raised in SPACs' initial public offerings. The authors explain how this result is partly driven by current U.S. securities regulation and recommend reforms to address differential regulatory treatment of SPACs and traditional IPOs. This episode is hosted by Andrew Jennings, a teaching fellow and lecturer in law at Stanford Law School.