Private Equity Performance: A Survey

Steven Kaplan () and Berk A. Sensoy
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Berk A. Sensoy: OH State University

Working Paper Series from Ohio State University, Charles A. Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics

Abstract: We survey the literature on private equity performance, focusing on venture capital and buyout funds rather than portfolio companies. We describe recent findings on performance measures, average fund returns, risk adjustments, cyclicality and liquidity, persistence, interim returns and self-reported net asset values, the performance of different types of investors in funds, and the links between management contracts and fund returns. Buyout funds have outperformed the S&P 500 net of fees on average by about 20% over the life of the fund. Venture capital funds raised in the 1990s outperformed the S&P 500 while those raised in the 2000s underperformed. The results are consistent across a number of datasets and papers. Before the 2000s, buyout and venture capital fund performance showed strong evidence of persistence. Since 2000, buyout fund persistence has declined, while venture capital fund persistence has remained equally strong.

JEL-codes: G11 G12 G23 G24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ger
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2627312

Related works:
Journal Article: Private Equity Performance: A Survey (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecl:ohidic:2015-10

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