Scholars from a number of universities have created a consortium for research on private equity. The Private Equity Research Consortium (PERC) will conduct and promote research on how these private capital investments affect both financial results and broader economic issues.
“Historically, researchers who want to study private equity confront a major barrier: high-quality data”
The consortium is particularly interested in the interaction of scholars and industry professionals to improve data on and understanding of private equity. PERC will be housed at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School. Its formation was made possible by a generous grant from the UAI Foundation, a non-profit foundation devoted to supporting research in finance.
PERC has named its founding advisory board:
- Gregory W. Brown , University of North Carolina, Kenan-Flagler Business School
- Robert Harris , PERC director and University of Virginia, Darden School of Business
- Tim Jenkinson , Oxford University, Said Business School
- Steven Kaplan , University of Chicago, Booth School of Business
- James Bachman , Burgiss, Director
The advisory board charts the consortium’s research agenda and will review applications from academic researchers for access to data available through the consortium in collaboration with Burgiss. Burgiss provides portfolio management software, data and analytics to asset owners investing in private capital. Its solutions streamline the investment process, provide transparency into portfolio holdings, and enable data-driven decisions.
“Over the last two decades, private equity has grown to become an important part of the investment landscape, yet little is known about the industry. Historically, researchers who want to study private equity confront a major barrier: high-quality data,” said Brown, Sarah Graham Kenan Distinguished Scholar and professor of finance at UNC Kenan-Flagler. “Our goal is to help remove that barrier.”
“PERC provides a powerful opportunity to bring together scholars and industry professionals with a common goal: a better understanding of private equity’s effects on both financial results and broader economic outcomes,” said Harris, director of PERC and the C. Stewart Sheppard Professor at Darden.
PERC activities include creating research for publication in academic and practitioner journals, developing and testing data, providing access to data for academic researchers, hosting an annual conference of leading academics and industry professionals, and producing short reports on topics of current interest in private equity. This year’s conference will be held Nov. 22, 2013, at UNC-Chapel Hill.
For information about PERC, access to complete and ongoing research projects, and how to apply for access to data available through the consortium, visit this link.