Private Equity

Private Equity Research Consortium (PERC) is an assemblage of academic researchers and industry professionals dedicated to advancing research on private equity and credit. Our core mission is to develop a better understanding of how private capital investments affect both financial results and broader economic outcomes.

PERC, organized through IPC, was established in 2012 by scholars from the business schools at the University of Chicago, Duke University, UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Oxford, and the University of Virginia as well as other institutions who recognized challenges facing empirical research on private equity. PERC supports academic studies by researchers all over the world by facilitating access to data for scholars. For example, PERC has an exclusive arrangement with Burgiss to provide access to data for academic research. The Burgiss dataset includes 12,700 funds, 10 trillion in assets. It is sourced directly from limited partners and contains full performance histories of cash flows at the fund level. The Burgiss dataset represents the largest and most in-depth dataset of its kind on venture, buyout, and real estate funds available for academic research.

PERC periodically accepts applications from academic researchers for access to Burgiss private equity fund data.

Latest Private Equity Research

The Performance of Private Video Game Equity

November 03, 2024

I use deal-level data from StepStone to perform the first ever analysis of private video game investment using 566 private video game investment deals, most of which come in the form of venture capital. Using these deals, I analyze private video game companies as a source of value accretion and as investment opportunities.

The Private Capital Alpha

September 25, 2024

The alpha of an investment reflects its ability to increase the Sharpe ratio of a benchmark portfolio allocation based on tradable factors. We argue that, in the context of private capital, the usual approach to estimate alpha is misleading because it ignores the economic realities of investing in private markets. More

Investor Expertise and Private Investment Selection

August 26, 2024

Despite the remarkable growth of individual investors in private markets, little is known about their investment patterns. We test the impact of investor expertise on venture capital fund selection by conducting an experiment with limited partners.

Asset Allocation Experiment Investor Expertise Private Equity Venture Capital

Advisory Board

Greg Brown

Research Director, IPC; Weatherspoon Distinguished Professor of Finance, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School

Keith Crouch

Executive Director, Co-Head Private Capital Product, MSCI

Robert S. Harris

C. Stewart Sheppard Professor of Business Administration, University of Virginia, Darden School; (PERC Advisory Board Chair)

Yael Hochberg

Ralph S. O'Connor Professor in Entrepreneurship & Finance, Head of the Entrepreneurship Initiative, Rice University

Tim Jenkinson

Professor of Finance, Oxford University, Saïd Business School

Steven Kaplan

Neubauer Family Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance, University of Chicago, Booth School of Business

David Robinson

Professor of Finance and J. Rex Fuqua Distinguished Professor of International Management, Duke University, Fuqua School of Business

Reiner Braun

Chair, Entrepreneurial Finance, Technische Universität München

Michael Ewens

David L. and Elsie M. Dodd Professor of Finance, Columbia Business School

Andrei Gonçalves

Associate Professor of Finance, The Ohio State University, Fisher College of Business

Will Gornall

Associate Professor of Finance, University of British Columbia, Sauder School of Business

Oleg Gredil

Associate Professor of Finance, Tulane University, A. B. Freeman School of Business

Sabrina Howell

Professor of Finance, New York University Stern School of Business

Victoria Ivashina

Lovett-Learned Chaired Professor of Finance, Harvard Business School

Arthur Korteweg

Dean's Associate Professor of Finance and Business Economics, University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business

Josh Lerner

Schiff Professor of Investment Banking, Harvard Business School

Vrinda Mittal

Assistant Professor of Finance, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School

Stefan Morkoetter

Professor of Finance, University of St.Gallen

Adair Morse

William A. and Betty H. Hasler Chair in New Enterprise Development Finance, UC Berkeley Haas School of Business

Ludovic Phalippou

Professor of Financial Economics, University of Oxford, Saïd Business School

Antoinette Schoar

Koerner Professor of Finance, MIT Sloan School of Management

Berk Sensoy

Hans Stoll Professor of Finance, Vanderbilt University, Owen Graduate School of Management

Morten Sorensen

Associate Professor of Finance, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth

Ilya Strebulaev

David S. Lobel Professor of Private Equity & Finance; Stanford Graduate School of Business

Per Stromberg

SSE Centennial Professor of Finance and Private Equity, Stockholm School of Economics; Adjunct Professor of Finance, Booth Business School, University of Chicago

Michael Weisbach

Ralph W. Kurtz Chair in Finance, Ohio State University, Fisher College of Business

Ayako Yasuda

Maurice J. and Marcia G. Gallagher Chair in Finance, UC Davis