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
Evergreen vs. Drawdown Funds: Risk, Returns and Cash Flows
Evergreen funds are a rapidly growing segment of the private capital universe. While open-ended structures have existed for decades in some asset classes such as real estate, the more recent products have included a broader set of assets such as private equity and credit. More
There is No Carried Interest Loophole
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?
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
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
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
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?
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.
MoreDo Public Equities Span Private Equity Returns?
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?
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
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
