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Smart Institutions, Foolish Choices? The Limited Partner Performance Puzzle

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Author Info
Josh Lerner
Antoinette Schoar
Wan Wong

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Abstract

The returns that institutional investors realize from private equity investments differ dramatically across institutions. Using detailed and hitherto unexplored records of fund investors and performance, we document large heterogeneity in the performance of different classes of limited partners. In particular, endowments' annual returns are nearly 14% greater than average. Funds selected by investment advisors and banks lag sharply. These results are robust to controlling for the type and year of the investment, as well as to the use of different specifications. Analyses of reinvestment decisions and young funds suggest that the results are not primarily due to endowments' greater access to established funds. Finally, we examine the differences in the choice of intermediaries across various institutional investors and their relationship to success. We find that LPs that have higher average IRRs also tend to invest in older funds and have a smaller fraction of GPs in their geographic area, and that the performance of university endowments is correlated with measures of the quality and loyalty of the student body.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 11136.

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Date of creation: Feb 2005
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11136

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G1 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets
G2 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Colin Mayer & Koen Schoors & Yishay Yafeh, 2003. "Sources of Funds and Investment Activities of Venture Capital Funds: Evidence from Germany, Israel, Japan and the UK," NBER Working Papers 9645, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Steven Kaplan & Antoinette Schoar, 2003. "Private Equity Performance: Returns, Persistence and Capital," NBER Working Papers 9807, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1997. " The Limits of Arbitrage," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 35-55, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Lerner, Josh & Schoar, Antoinette, 2004. "The illiquidity puzzle: theory and evidence from private equity," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 3-40, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Kaplan, Steve & Schoar, Antoinette, 2004. "Private Equity Performance: Returns, Persistence and Capital Flows," Working papers 4446-03, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management. [Downloadable!]
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  6. James M. Poterba, 1989. "Venture Capital and Capital Gains Taxation," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 3, pages 47-68 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
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  7. Thomas Hellman & Laura Lindsey & Manju Puri, 2004. "Building Relationships Early: Banks in Venture Capital," NBER Working Papers 10535, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Grinblatt, Mark & Titman, Sheridan & Wermers, Russ, 1995. "Momentum Investment Strategies, Portfolio Performance, and Herding: A Study of Mutual Fund Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(5), pages 1088-1105, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Barberis, Nicholas & Shleifer, Andrei, 2003. "Style investing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 161-199, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Paul A. Gompers & Josh Lerner, 1999. "What Drives Venture Capital Fundraising?," NBER Working Papers 6906, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Gompers, Paul & Lerner, Josh, 1996. "The Use of Covenants: An Empirical Analysis of Venture Partnership Agreements," Journal of Law & Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 39(2), pages 463-98, October.
  12. Paul A. Gompers & Andrew Metrick, 2001. "Institutional Investors And Equity Prices," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 116(1), pages 229-259, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Gompers, Paul & Lerner, Josh, 1999. "An analysis of compensation in the U.S. venture capital partnership1," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 3-44, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Kenneth A. Froot & Melvyn Teo, 2004. "Equity Style Returns and Institutional Investor Flows," NBER Working Papers 10355, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Gromb, Denis & Vayanos, Dimitri, 2002. "Equilibrium and welfare in markets with financially constrained arbitrageurs," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2-3), pages 361-407. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Gompers, Paul & Lerner, Josh, 2000. "Money chasing deals? The impact of fund inflows on private equity valuation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 281-325, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Zwart, G.J. de & Frieser, B. & Dijk, D.J.C. van, 2007. "A Recommitment Strategy for Long Term Private Equity Fund Investors," Research Paper ERS-2007-097-F&A Revision, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus Uni. [Downloadable!]
  2. Oliver, Gottschalg & Ludovic, Phalippou, 2006. "The performance of private equity funds," Les Cahiers de Recherche 852, HEC Paris. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Axelson, Ulf & Strömberg, Per Johan & Weisbach, Michael, 2007. "Why are Buyouts Leveraged? The Financial Structure of Private Equity Firms," CEPR Discussion Papers 6133, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Groh, Alexander P. & Liechtenstein, Heinrich & Canela, Miguel A., 2008. "Limited partners' perceptions of the Central Eastern European venture capital and private equity market," IESE Research Papers D/727, IESE Business School. [Downloadable!]
  5. Cronqvist, Henrik & Fahlenbrach, Rüdiger, 2007. "Large Shareholders and Corporate Policies," SIFR Research Report Series 60, Institute for Financial Research. [Downloadable!]
  6. Douglas Cumming & Grant Fleming & Armin Schwienbacher, 2008. "Financial intermediaries, ownership structure and the provision of venture capital to SMEs: evidence from Japan," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 59-92, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Lai, Richard, 2006. "Why Funds of Funds?," MPRA Paper 4762, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
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  8. Boyan Jovanovic & Balàzs Szentes, 2007. "On the Return to Venture Capital," NBER Working Papers 12874, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Cumming, Douglas & Johan, Sofia, 2006. "Regulatory harmonization and the development of private equity markets," Discussion Paper 1, Tilburg University, Tilburg Law and Economic Center. [Downloadable!]
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  10. Josh Lerner & Antoinette Schoar & Jialan Wang, 2008. "Secrets of the Academy: The Drivers of University Endowment Success," NBER Working Papers 14341, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Cronqvist, Henrik & Fahlenbrach, Rudiger, 2007. "Large Shareholders and Corporate Policies," Working Paper Series 2006-14, Ohio State University, Charles A. Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics. [Downloadable!]
  12. Cumming, Douglas & Johan, Sofia, 2006. "Corporate social responsibility: domestic and international private equity institutional investment," Discussion Paper 2, Tilburg University, Tilburg Law and Economic Center. [Downloadable!]
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  13. Ulf Axelson & Per Stromberg & Michael S. Weisbach, 2007. "Why are Buyouts Levered: The Financial Structure of Private Equity Funds," NBER Working Papers 12826, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
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