Public equity, Market emergence, Market design, Alternative Investment Market, High-tech, Small firms.

G10, G18, M13, L26

This work provides an overview of the historical evolution, the organizational forms, and the performances of the stock exchanges and market segments catering to small and growing companies, set up in Europe in the last thirty years. Our analysis is mainly centered on the Alternative Investment Market, created by the London Stock Exchange in 1995. This case study yields useful insights about the role of public and private interests in market emergence and in shaping market architectures, the costs and benefits of light stock market regulation, and the use of stock markets to support technology- based small firms. A review of the existing empirical evidence shows that dimensional growth of the AIM has been fueled by companies characterized by low values of long-term returns, growth rates, R&D productivity and solvency.