Based on the typical positions of S&P 500 option market makers, we derive a funding illiquidity measure from quoted prices of S&P 500 derivatives. Our measure significantly affects the returns of leveraged managed portfolios; hedge funds with negative exposure to changes in funding illiquidity...

In the last two decades, a number of private equity scholars have attempted to assess the ex-post returns (performance) of private equity funds (PEs). Such studies have produced both contradictory conclusions that have included a wide spread of abnormal realized returns ranging from -6%...

We review the literature on the risks and returns of private equity funds, comparing the different datasets used in academic research. Irrespective of the datasets used, average returns seem to be lower than public equity returns and, in any event, less spectacular than often conjectured. Buyout...

Analyzing cross sectional determinants of fund flows, this study finds evidence that investors' risk aversion is time-varying. In particular, the periods over which the increases in risk aversion are observed are associated with contemporaneously low market returns, suggesting that increases in...