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Journal of Finance Vol. 69 No. 5 2014

Private Equity Performance: What Do We Know?

Robert S. Harris; Tim Jenkinson; Steven N. Kaplan1,2,3,4,5

1 Center for Economic and Policy Research · 2 University of Oxford · 3 Partners In Care · 4 Centre for Bhutan Studies and GNH Research · 5 University of Virginia

Abstract

We study the performance of nearly 1,400 U.S. buyout and venture capital funds using a new data set from Burgiss. We find better buyout fund performance than previously documented—performance has consistently exceeded that of public markets. Outperformance versus the S&P 500 averages 20% to 27% over a fund's life and more than 3% annually. Venture capital funds outperformed public equities in the 1990s, but underperformed in the 2000s. Our conclusions are robust to various indices and risk controls. Performance in Cambridge Associates and Preqin is qualitatively similar to that in Burgiss, but is lower in Venture Economics.

DOI
10.1111/jofi.12154
Volume
69
Issue
5
Pages
1851-1882
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref openalex

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