Research

Our Research Strategy

At IPC, data, research and education improve understanding of the role of private capital in the global economy. An essential first step for generating quality research is access to reliable data.  Thus, our top priority is making research-quality data sources widely available to academic researchers.

Access to data on private investments presents challenges, including confidentiality concerns, the proprietary nature of many datasets, and the diffuse nature of private investments.  However, we believe that these challenges are best addressed by a deliberate systematic approach through a combined academic effort.  In many cases, data owners welcome the benefits derived from confidential analysis of their data by objective academic researchers.

IPC currently focuses on three research areas:

Private Equity Real Estate Active Management


There is No Carried Interest Loophole

May 27, 2025

Carried interest is a special, or disproportionate-to-ownership, allocation of profits to the general partner of a private equity or hedge fund partnership. Some commentators deride carried interest as a “loophole” that... More

Do Development Financial Institutions Create Impact through Venture Capital Investments?

May 20, 2025

Despite managing $23 trillion in assets, Development Financial Institutions' (DFIs) investment activities remain understudied. We document DFIs' substantial growth in... More

Private Capital Markets and Inequality

May 17, 2025

This paper studies the relationship between the growth in private capital markets and the rise in economic inequalities in the U.S over the last two decades. First, we document that the share of financing raised by early-stage companies from U.S.-based high-net-worth individuals... More

Venturing into Racial Diversity on Startup Boards

May 14, 2025

What drives racial diversity on startup boards? We provide the first evidence on this question by exploiting the demand shock from the 2020 George Floyd (GF) protests. Using... More

Bond Disclosure as a Window into Private Equity: A Methodology and First Evidence from the European Market

April 28, 2025

Research on the operations and financing of companies owned by private equity funds remains challenging due to limited quantity and inconsistent quality of available data... More

What Do We Know About Institutional-Quality Hedge Funds?

April 15, 2025

Using publicly available sources such as trade press and Form ADV filings, we compile a list of 561 “institutional-quality” hedge fund managers that each have at least 1 billion USD in primary hedge fund assets under management.

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Do Public Equities Span Private Equity Returns?

April 10, 2025

We characterize the factors common between public and private equity (PE) returns as well as the factors specific to private and public returns, respectively. Using a comprehensive dataset of PE funds and recent advances... More

Risk-Adjusted Performance of Private Funds: What Do We Know?

March 26, 2025
White Paper

In this IPC white paper, we examine the historical risk-adjusted performance of private funds across diverse asset classes and geographies using the most comprehensive and current dataset to date. More

Optimal Hedge Fund Allocation

March 14, 2025

This study addresses the optimal asset allocation problem for investors managing a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, and hedge funds. Significant allocations to hedge funds may be justified due to their diversification benefits, even when hedge funds generate minimal or no alpha. More

SEC Oversight of Private Equity and Hedge Funds

March 10, 2025

We examine the effect of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigations on private fund investment advisers’ fundraising. We propose that SEC oversight could improve advisers’ disclosure and governance, facilitating capital formation. More