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Gloria Nieto/The Globe and Mail

Hot technology markets have prompted investment bankers on both sides of the border to call for a torrent of initial public offerings in the coming year.

In Canada, technology sector gains on the TSX are making IPOs more appealing, and there are six or seven quality companies waiting in the wings, according to some bankers.

In the U.S., new listings such as Twitter Inc. are paving the way for what CNBC is calling both an "avalanche" and a "tsunami" of IPOs beginning in March.

But just how important is the geography when it comes to new listings? The IPOs popping up south of the border aren't as important as they once were, according to a study of global IPOs published in the Journal of Financial Economics that charted IPOs in 88 countries from 1990 through 2011. As the U.S.'s share of the world's IPOs fell, country affiliations have become less and less important.

The data showed that U.S. IPO activity hasn't kept up with the country's economic strength, especially when it comes to small companies. This decline can't be blamed on regulatory changes made in the 2000s, according to researchers, including Craig Doidge, an associate professor of finance at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.

Instead, a lot of the U.S. IPO lag has happened as financial globalization has made it easier for other countries to come to market. Companies in countries that were once held back by weak "national institutions" such as tricky laws, governance, disclosure, and enforcement standards are now more nimble at raising capital internationally and using cross-border investment tools.

"Because U.S. IPO activity has not kept up with the rest of the world, the U.S. share of worldwide IPO activity has decreased," the report states. "If at one point in time the U.S. was the "land of the IPO," it is no longer so [by] the 2000s."

A look at IPO proceeds in these two decades show the U.S. share is shrinking, while Canada and other countries such as Germany and France have maintained their global standing, and China's market share of total proceeds quadrupled.

Asia is undoubtedly soaring ahead. Asia Pacific region IPOs hit $9.6-billion (U.S.) year to date in 2014, Thomson Reuters data from Feb. 21 shows. That's more than five times 2013's volume.

But just because the U.S. is not the dominant new listing force that it was in the 1990s, doesn't mean it isn't on the cusp of a flourish of IPOs.

Twitter's $1.8-billion IPO boosted proceeds from new U.S. listings to the highest point since the year 2000, Thompson Reuters data showed. A whopping $50.7-billion had been raised year to date when Twitter launched in November. Sectors such as health care, media and telecom led the way.

And Canada is also coming off a solid year. There were 30 IPOs in 2013, about half of 2012's total, but the new listings were valued at $2.7-billion last year, compared with just $1.8-billion the year before. The real estate sector dominated the charts, with 44 per cent of the IPOs, according to PricewatehouseCooper data.

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