We model the impact of public and private ownership structures on firms' incentives to invest in innovative projects. We show that it is optimal to go public when exploiting existing ideas and optimal to go private when exploring new ideas. This result derives from the fact that private firms...

Access privileges matter in private equity markets. Funds of funds and other financial intermediaries can create value not only by selecting, but also by being able to access, better investment opportunities. We find that access-constrained funds outperform their peers, and that limited partners...