Has Persistence Persisted in Private Equity? Evidence from Buyout and Venture Capital Funds

45 Pages Posted: 2 Aug 2013 Last revised: 31 Mar 2022

See all articles by Robert S. Harris

Robert S. Harris

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business

Tim Jenkinson

University of Oxford - Said Business School; European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)

Steven N. Kaplan

University of Chicago - Booth School of Business; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI); University of Chicago - Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship

Rüdiger Stucke

Warburg Pincus; University of Oxford

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: March 30, 2022

Abstract

We present new evidence on the persistence of U.S. buyout and venture capital (VC) fund performance using high quality cash-flow data sourced from Burgiss’s large sample of institutional investors. Using ex post returns, we find that persistence of VC funds has remained remarkably strong. We also find persistence in buyout performance, but this has become weaker for funds raised post-2000. However, when we focus on the information available to investors ex ante – previous fund performance at the time of fundraising, rather than final fund performance – we find little evidence of persistence for buyouts but continued strong persistence for VC funds.

Keywords: Private equity, performance persistence, venture capital

JEL Classification: G2, G11

Suggested Citation

Harris, Robert S. and Jenkinson, Tim and Kaplan, Steven Neil and Stucke, Rüdiger, Has Persistence Persisted in Private Equity? Evidence from Buyout and Venture Capital Funds (March 30, 2022). Fama-Miller Working Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2304808 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2304808

Robert S. Harris

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business ( email )

P.O. Box 6550
Charlottesville, VA 22906-6550
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434-924-4823 (Phone)
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HOME PAGE: http://www.darden.virginia.edu/faculty/harris.htm

Tim Jenkinson

University of Oxford - Said Business School ( email )

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Oxford, OX1 1HP
United Kingdom
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+44 1865 288831 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.sbs.oxford.edu/timjenkinson

European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) ( email )

c/o the Royal Academies of Belgium
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1000 Brussels
Belgium

HOME PAGE: http://www.ecgi.org

Steven Neil Kaplan (Contact Author)

University of Chicago - Booth School of Business ( email )

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Chicago, IL 60637
United States
773-702-4513 (Phone)
773-702-0458 (Fax)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
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European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) ( email )

c/o the Royal Academies of Belgium
Rue Ducale 1 Hertogsstraat
1000 Brussels
Belgium

University of Chicago - Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship

Chicago, IL 60637
United States

Rüdiger Stucke

Warburg Pincus ( email )

450 Lexington Ave
New York, NY 10017
United States

University of Oxford ( email )

Park End Street
Oxford, OX1 1HP
Great Britain

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