A ballast which controls the open-circuit voltage of the ballast. The ballast includes a power factor corrector (PFC) for receiving an AC input voltage and converting the AC input voltage into a power factor corrected DC voltage; a DC/DC converter connected to the PFC and having a switch placed at a low-voltage side of the DC/DC converter for converting the DC voltage of the PFC into a DC output voltage according to the switching operation of the switch; a controller connected to a control terminal of the switch of the DC/DC converter for sending a switching control signal to control the switch; and an open-circuit voltage controller for detecting a voltage associated with the open-circuit voltage of the ballast and regulating the duty ratio or pulse density or switching frequency of the switching control signal in response to the results of the detection, thereby controlling the open-circuit voltage.