Thirty years after Jensen’s prediction: Is private equity a superior form of ownership?
回顾了Michael Jensen三十年前关于私募股权将取代上市公司的预测，梳理了相关研究进展，指出由于样本小、交易复杂和隐私性强，目前仍难以得出私募股权是否更优越的结论，并建议缩小公私市场的监管差距。
Abstract Almost exactly 30 years ago, a famous article by Michael Jensen in the Harvard Business Review predicted that private equity would ‘eclipse’ the public corporation because it was a superior form of corporate ownership. Trends since 1989 seem to bear out Jensen’s prediction. Much time and energy has gone into studying whether the private equity model does see companies being run better for investors and society. Progress has been made and most studies find positive results. But samples are usually relatively small. And the relative complexity of private equity transactions, combined with a high level of privacy, makes it hard to find financial statements that are tractable enough for meaningful analysis. After 30 years of research, we argue that a conclusive answer to the question remains further away than might seem to be the case. In the meantime, the appropriate regulatory response involves narrowing the ‘regulatory gap’ between public and private markets.