the impact of external institutional environment on IPO prospectus size.Regression models are pooled cross section OLS regressions relating control variables and board characteristics to natural logarithm of IPO prospectus length.IPO prospectus length is defined as total number of pages making up the last issued prospectus of firm immediately preceding IPO.the six world bank governance indices are as defined in table 1. industry controls,talking value 1 if firm falls within an industry category and 0 otherwise,are for finance,technology and extractive industries.board size is total number of directors on board