Stock markets in transition: the Warsaw experiment

Abstract

This paper investigates the development from 1991 to 1994 of the Warsaw Stock Exchange, which opened on April 16th, 1991. An overview is presented focusing first on the deepening of the equity market, with a still limited but increasing number of listed companies, and then on the high trading activity and price dynamics with their impressive outburst in 1993. Three important dimensions are thereafter analyzed: the relevance of organizational and regulatory choices, the degree of market inefficiency and the origin of the discrepancy between IPO prices and first quoted market prices. Concluding remarks concentrate on the market's ability to fulfil its fundamental tasks. Copyright The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 1997.