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Investor Scale and Performance in Private Equity Investments

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  • A. Dyck
  • L. Pomorski

Abstract

We document that defined benefit pension plans with significant holdings in private equity (PE) earn substantially greater returns than plans with small holdings, in both the 1990s and the 2000s. A one standard deviation increase in PE holdings is associated with 4% greater returns per year. Up to one-third of this outperformance comes from lower costs that we link to economizing on costly intermediation by avoiding fund-of-funds and investing directly. The bulk of the outperformance comes from superior gross returns only partially explained by access and experience. We conjecture that larger PE investors have superior due diligence and ability to bridge information asymmetries in PE.

Suggested Citation

  • A. Dyck & L. Pomorski, 2016. "Investor Scale and Performance in Private Equity Investments," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 20(3), pages 1081-1106.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:revfin:v:20:y:2016:i:3:p:1081-1106.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/rof/rfv030
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Narasimhan Jegadeesh & Roman Kräussl & Joshua M. Pollet, 2015. "Risk and Expected Returns of Private Equity Investments: Evidence Based on Market Prices," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(12), pages 3269-3302.
    2. Bauer, R.M.M.J. & Cremers, K.J.M. & Frehen, R.G.P., 2010. "Pension Fund Performance and Costs: Small is Beautiful," MPRA Paper 23556, University Library of Munich, Germany.
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    4. Da Rin, M. & Phalippou, L., 2014. "There is Something Special About Large Investors : Evidence From a Survey of Private Equity Limited Partners," Discussion Paper 2014-016, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
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    6. Da Rin, M. & Phalippou, L., 2014. "There is Something Special About Large Investors : Evidence From a Survey of Private Equity Limited Partners," Discussion Paper 2014-016, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    7. Ludovic Phalippou, 2009. "Beware of Venturing into Private Equity," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 147-166, Winter.
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    Cited by:

    1. Boon, L.N. & Brière, M. & Rigot, S., 2018. "Regulation and pension fund risk-taking," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 23-41.
    2. Sakshi Sharma & Kunjana Malik & Manmeet Kaur & Neha Saini, 2023. "Mapping research in the field of private equity: a bibliometric analysis," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 73(1), pages 61-89, February.
    3. Jansen, Kristy, 2021. "Essays on institutional investors, portfolio choice, and asset prices," Other publications TiSEM fd998408-d282-4e0f-b542-4, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    4. Marina Halac & Ilan Kremer & Eyal Winter, 2020. "Raising Capital from Heterogeneous Investors," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(3), pages 889-921, March.
    5. Aleksandar Andonov & Joshua D Rauh, 2022. "The Return Expectations of Public Pension Funds," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 35(8), pages 3777-3822.
    6. Broeders, Dirk W. G. A. & Jansen, Kristy A. E. & Werker, Bas J. M., 2021. "Pension fund's illiquid assets allocation under liquidity and capital requirements," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 102-124, January.
    7. De Gennaro Aquino, Luca & Sornette, Didier & Strub, Moris S., 2023. "Portfolio selection with exploration of new investment assets," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 310(2), pages 773-792.
    8. Dirk Broeders & Kristy Jansen & Bas Werker, 2017. "Pension fund's illiquid assets allocation under liquidity and capital constraints," DNB Working Papers 555, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
    9. Nicolae Gârleanu & Lasse Heje Pedersen, 2018. "Efficiently Inefficient Markets for Assets and Asset Management," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 73(4), pages 1663-1712, August.
    10. Muhammad Irfan & Raima Adeel & Muhammad Shaukat Malik, 2023. "The Impact of Emotional Finance, and Market Knowledge and Investor Protection on Investment Performance in Stock and Real Estate Markets," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, November.
    11. Cumming, Douglas & Khan, Muhammad Zubair & Khan, Naimat U. & Khan, Zafir Ullah, 2024. "Size matters: Unpacking the relationship between institutional investor size and private equity asset allocation within diverse institutional contexts," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).

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