Publications

December 1995 (Revised December 1995)
Case

Yale University Investments Office

By: Josh Lerner and Jay O. Light

Yale University's investment office was responsible for managing its endowment, which totaled nearly $4 billion in June 1995. Yale had developed a rather different approach to endowment management, including substantial investments in "less efficient" equity markets... View Details

Keywords: Assets; Private Equity; Investment; Investment Return; Management; Markets; Strategy; Education Industry

2024
Working Paper

Economic Budgeting for Endowment-Dependent Universities

By: John Y. Campbell, Jeremy C. Stein and Alex A. Wu

To understand their financial position, universities need to understand the long-term implications of their operating revenues and costs in relation to the financial assets they have available. Standard budgeting procedures that focus on one or two years at a time and... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Cash Flow; Cost; Revenue; Education Industry

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November 2000 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Yale University Investments Office: July 2000

David Swensen, chief investment officer at Yale University, reviews the $10 billion endowment strategy, that places an unusually heavy emphasis on private equity and other illiquid securities. Changing market conditions in July 2000 cause him to rethink historically... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Financial Liquidity; Investment; Strategy; Education Industry

September 2003 (Revised March 2004)
Case

Yale University Investments Office: June 2003

The Yale Investments Office must decide whether to continue to allocate the bulk of the university's endowment to illiquid investments--hedge funds, private equity, real estate, and so forth. Considers the risks and benefits of a different asset allocation strategy.... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Assets; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Investment Funds; Resource Allocation; Partners and Partnerships; Risk and Uncertainty; Strategy; Education Industry

October 2011 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Yale University Investments Office: February 2011

By: Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

David Swensen and the Investments Office staff must decide whether to continue to allocate the bulk of the university's endowment to illiquid investments—hedge funds, private equity, real estate—given the impact of the recent market turmoil. The case explores the risks... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Resource Allocation; Investment; Venture Capital; Investment Funds; Property; Private Equity

January 2007 (Revised March 2011)
Case

Yale University Investments Office: August 2006

The Yale Investments Office must decide whether to continue to allocate the bulk of the university's endowment to illiquid investments--hedge funds, private equity, real estate, and so forth. Considers the risks and benefits of a different asset allocation strategy.... View Details

Keywords: Higher Education; Asset Management; Financial Management; Financial Strategy; Investment Portfolio; Risk Management

April 2015 (Revised April 2015)
Case

Yale University Investments Office: February 2015

David Swensen and the Investments Office staff must decide whether to continue to allocate the bulk of the university's endowment to illiquid investments—hedge funds, private equity, real estate—given the impact of the recent market turmoil. The case explores the risks... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Resource Allocation; Investment; Venture Capital; Investment Funds; Property; Private Equity

December 1997 (Revised September 1998)
Case

Yale University Investments Office: November 1997

David Swensen, chief investment officer at Yale University, reviews the $6 billion endowment strategy, which places an unusually heavy emphasis on private equity and other illiquid securities. Changing market conditions in November 1997 cause him to rethink... View Details

Keywords: Change; Private Equity; Financial Liquidity; Investment; Marketing Strategy; Strategy; Education Industry

01 Oct 1998
News

Andresen Becomes First European and First Exec. Ed. Graduate to Endow HBS Professorship

to endow a professorship at HBS. "Harvard Business School has been very important in my life," he continues. "My experience there was the realization of a lifelong dream. I am delighted to be able to make a gesture that underscores the... View Details

25 Jul 2011
Research & Ideas

How Disruptive Innovation is Remaking the University

rethink the entire traditional higher education model. Private universities without national recognition and large endowments are at great financial risk. So are public universities, even prestigious ones... View Details

Keywords: by Clayton M. Christensen & Henry J. Eyring; Education

15 Aug 2022
Book

University of the Future: Finding the Next World Leaders in Higher Ed

Americans, of the virtues of limited government, and as a result it has the smallest and least intrusive central administration of any major American university and is undistinguished in central planning. Its faculties and schools defend... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Education

2022
Working Paper

Heterogeneity of Gain-Loss Attitudes and Expectations-Based Reference Points

By: Pol Campos-Mercade, Lorenz Goette, Thomas Graeber, Alex Kellogg and Charles Sprenger

Existing tests of reference-dependent preferences assume universal loss aversion. This paper examines heterogeneity in gain-loss attitudes, and explores its implications for identifying models of the reference point. In two experimental settings we measure gain-loss... View Details

Keywords: Reference-dependent Preferences; Rational Expectations; Personal Equilibrium; Endowment Effect; Expectations-based Reference Points