American Investment Council

Get The Facts

The data is clear. Private equity has a long and consistent track record of supporting public pension funds and millions of their beneficiaries. Nevertheless, career critics of the industry, ranging from Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) to economist Eileen Appelbaum, often cite incomplete or inaccurate data about private equity’s returns.

Some recent reporting has included the work of Oxford Said Business School professor Ludovic Phalippou to inaccurately claim that private equity has not been the best performing asset class for public pension funds and other institutional investors. However, Professor Phalippou’s claims and work have been debunked, most notably by noted University of Chicago Professor Steven Kaplan, whom Fortune referred to as “probably the foremost private equity scholar in the galaxy.”

Copied below are some of the key facts Professor Phalippou gets wrong: