The Determinants of Pension Fundss Allocation to Private Equity

Abstract

This paper investigates the main determinants of pension funds investment in private equity funds, and particularly in venture capital and leverage buyouts in the US and Canada over the 1996-2011 period. Our results, based on a Tobit model, show some important differences between pension funds allocating to private equity and more traditional assets (i.e. equity). The first ones are bigger, mainly diversified private funds. They do not consider the age of their members when deciding this type of allocation and they present a higher discount rate. Furthermore, they specially take into account their private equity returns in comparison to management costs. We also show that pension funds investing in private equity do not distinguish between venture capital and leverage buyouts.