Title: Initial coin offerings: Can ESG mitigate underpricing? Authors:  Alessandro Bitetto - University of Pavia (Italy) [presenting]
Paola Cerchiello - University of Pavia (Italy)
Abstract: Initial coin offerings (ICOs) have emerged as a novel way of start-up funding based on blockchain technology, and the aim is to explain the nexus between ICOs' success and underpricing, i.e. when the price of the offered token is lower than the one traded in the market. In particular, the focus is on the impact of the environmental, social and governance (ESG) pillars on the ICOs' underpricing. Therefore, a big and comprehensive dataset is built up, comprising 8000 ICOs spanning from 2015 through 2023, containing both technical and financial information. Moreover, an ESG score is assessed by means of advanced textual analysis performed over the whitepapers. The main results show that a higher ESG orientation leads to less underpricing, especially in the early trading days.