Overview
- Dates
- Monday, June 14 to Friday, June 18, 2027
- Location
- Imperial College London
- Co-organizers
-
- Michael Ewens (Columbia Business School and NBER)
- Gilles Chemla (Imperial College, CNRS, and CEPR)
- Supporting institutions
- Imperial College
- Contact
- [email protected]
Description
This week-long PhD workshop covers major topics in private capital, including private equity, venture capital, entrepreneurial finance, capital markets, financial intermediation, and more.
Over the last 30 years, the size and scope of private capital markets have grown, while public capital markets have shrunk on several dimensions. The increasing importance of private capital for firms and investors demands that researchers learn more about this area. Even researchers interested in other areas, such as IPOs, mutual funds, and banks, need to understand the what, the why, and the how of private capital markets.
In this five-day workshop, we will cover both the supply and the demand sides of these markets. The demand side includes all private firms, ranging from entrepreneurial firms to large late-stage private companies raising venture capital and private equity. We will focus on what distinguishes private firms from public firms and how private capital markets differ from public capital markets. Understanding the supply side of private capital always begins with an evaluation of intermediaries: the alternative asset managers and the institutional investors who provide them with capital.
This workshop is a follow-on to the Entrepreneurial Finance PhD Workshop and contains some of its material.
Lectures led by:
- Michael Ewens (Columbia Business School and NBER)
- Gilles Chemla (Imperial College, CNRS, and CEPR)
- Ramana Nanda (Imperial College)
- More TBA
Goals and Teaching Objectives
The workshop provides an overview of modern research in private capital markets and the foundation for success in producing research: mastering institutional details including definitions, industry norms, regulations, laws, databases, and disclosure rules.
By the end of the workshop, students should be able to:
- Describe the field's key facts and seminal results.
- Explain and analyze how private and public capital markets differ and why it matters.
- Critique the field's research designs (selection vs. treatment, missing prices, self-reported valuations).
- Assess how private-market data come to exist before drawing inferences.
- Formulate dissertation-ready research questions.
Target Students
Students past their second year of PhD programs in economics, finance, strategy, management, or related fields. Preference given to applicants from outside top schools with faculty working on these topics and those outside the U.S.
Who should apply: Students in their PhD's second, third, fourth, or fifth year, having completed basic core economics and/or finance classes.
Main Topics
Entrepreneurial finance and private firms
- Private firms raising capital
- Who becomes an entrepreneur, and why
- Entrepreneurial financing constraints
- Entrepreneur wealth, collateral, and selection into entrepreneurship
- Early-stage finance
- Venture capital contracting
Private equity
- Why private equity exists
- What GPs actually do: deal selection versus value creation, partner careers and styles
- The impact of private equity and LBOs on firms
- Who captures the surplus: workers, consumers, creditors and competitors
Public and private capital markets
- How public and private markets differ
- Why firms stay private longer, and why lending has moved from banks to private credit
- Regulatory differences between public and private markets
- Households, income inequality and private markets
Intermediaries and investors
- Institutional details of private equity and venture capital
- Asset allocation by institutional investors
- GP–LP relationships: fees, carry and LP selection skill
- Private debt and private credit, including risk-adjusting private debt fund returns
Risk, return and methods
- Performance measurement: IRR, PME and risk-adjusted returns
- Cycles: how interest rates, exit markets and fundraising move cash flows and measured returns
- Empirical methods and data, including selection versus treatment
Current topics
- Technology, AI and tokenization
- Secondaries, continuation funds, NAV loans and semi-liquid retail funds
- Private capital outside the US, including European VC and PE
- A contrarian perspective on private markets