The cash flow, return and risk characteristics of private equity

Using a unique dataset of private equity funds over the last two decades, this paper analyzes the cash flow, return, and risk characteristics of private equity. We document the draw down and capital return schedules for the typical private equity fund, and show that it takes several years for capital to be invested, and over ten years for capital to be returned to generate excess returns. We provide several determining factors for these schedules, including existing investment opportunities and competition amongst private equity funds. In terms of performance, we document that private equity generates excess returns on the order of five plus percent per annum relative to the aggregate public equity market. One interpretation of this magnitude is that it represents compensation for holding a 10-year illiquid investment.

Complete spatial safety for C and C++ using CHERI capabilities

Lack of memory safety in commonly used systems-level languages such as C and C++ results in a constant stream of new exploitable software vulnerabilities and exploit techniques. Many exploit mitigations have been proposed and deployed over the years, yet none address the root issue: lack of memory safety. Most C and C++ implementations assume a memory model based on a linear array of bytes rather than an object-centric view. Whilst more efficient on contemporary CPU architectures, linear addresses cannot encode the target object, thus permitting memory errors such as spatial safety violations (ignoring the bounds of an object). One promising mechanism to provide memory safety is CHERI (Capability Hardware Enhanced RISC Instructions), which extends existing processor architectures with capabilities that provide hardware-enforced checks for all accesses and can be used to prevent spatial memory violations. This dissertation prototypes and evaluates a pure-capability programming model (using CHERI capabilities for all pointers) to provide complete spatial memory protection for traditionally unsafe languages. As the first step towards memory safety, all language-visible pointers can be implemented as capabilities. I analyse the programmer-visible impact of this change and refine the pure-capability programming model to provide strong source-level compatibility with existing code. Second, to provide robust spatial safety, language-invisible pointers (mostly arising from program linkage) such as those used for functions calls and global variable accesses must also be protected. In doing so, I highlight trade-offs between performance and privilege minimization for implicit and programmer-visible pointers. Finally, I present CheriSH, a novel and highly compatible technique that protects against buffer overflows between fields of the same object, hereby ensuring that the CHERI spatial memory protection is complete. I find that the byte-granular spatial safety provided by CHERI pure-capability code is not only stronger than most other approaches, but also incurs almost negligible performance overheads in common cases (0.1% geometric mean) and a worst-case overhead of only 23.3% compared to the insecure MIPS baseline. Moreover, I show that the pure-capability programming model provides near-complete source-level compatibility with existing programs. I evaluate this based on porting large widely used open-source applications such as PostgreSQL and WebKit with only minimal changes: fewer than 0.1% of source lines. I conclude that pure-capability CHERI C/C++ is an eminently viable programming environment offering strong memory protection, good source-level compatibility and low performance overheads

Teaching jazz: A study of beliefs and pedagogy using Legitimation Code Theory

This thesis explores how playing jazz can be taught to children and young people in a field that can hide its own basis of achievement. How to play jazz, how achievement is measured, and how it can be taught are problematic. The thesis looks at why the basis may be invisible to new players and suggests solutions Research highlights that many Australian and US school music teachers may lack expertise in jazz, it is uncommon for jazz musicians to be trained in pedagogy, and the public face of jazz may hide teaching and expertise, with potential implications for students’ learning or access to jazz for the those who may wish to engage creatively with playing it. Using a qualitative approach, the study first examines the field of jazz education, through a corpus of documentary sources, to explore the basis of achievement in rhetoric about pedagogy. Second, the research utilises case studies of three jazz educators at a jazz camp for young people, looking at what knowledge and ways of knowing were taught and how knowledge and knowing were built over time. Each teacher’s beliefs about the basis of jazz achievement was examined through interviews. Data analysis enacted the Legitimation Code Theory concepts of specialisation codes, semantic gravity, and semantic density. The corpus showed a disconnect between a public face of jazz that emphasises knower aspects of jazz while minimising skills, techniques, or other expertise and a jazz education reality of formal training, practice, and specialist knowledge. Analysis of pedagogy in the case studies uncovered different specialisation codes embodied by each of the teachers, but each illustrative of codes active in the field and with educational implications and affordances. Key conclusions include: (1) widespread assumptions that successful jazz musicians of the past universally learnt through informal means or were self-taught are overstated; (2) the emphasis on knowers and absence of knowledge in public rhetoric about education, and even the absence of pedagogy itself, has implications that restrict legitimacy to certain categories of people or experiences. Neglecting either the knowledge or the knowing aspects of jazz problematises student’s potential to succeed. The study shows that there are ways the ‘rules of the game’ can be made explicit to support more effective pedagogy

Serial struggles : English Catholics and their periodicals,1648-1844

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

THE INVESTMENT BEHAVIOR OF PRIVATE EQUITY FUND MANAGERS

Using a unique dataset of private equity funds over the last two decades, this paper analyzes the investment behavior of private equity fund managers. Based on recent theoretical advances, we link the timing of funds’ investment and exit decisions, and the subsequent returns they earn on their portfolio companies, to changes in the demand for private equity in a setting where the supply of capital is ‘sticky’ in the short run. We show that existing funds accelerate their investment flows and earn higher returns when investment opportunities improve and the demand for capital increases. Increases in supply lead to tougher competition for deal flow, and private equity fund managers respond by cutting their investment spending. These findings provide complementary evidence to recent papers documenting the determinants of fund-level performance in private equity

The Cash Flow, Return and Risk Characteristics of Private Equity

Using a unique dataset of private equity funds over the last two decades, this paper analyzes the cash flow, return, and risk characteristics of private equity. Unlike previous studies, we have detailed cash flow data for each fund, rather than aggregate or accounting returns. We also know the exact timing of investments and capital returns to investors and the number and types of companies each fund invested in. We document the draw down and capital return schedules for the typical private equity fund, and show that it takes several years for capital to be invested, and over ten years for capital to be returned to generate excess returns. We provide several determining factors for these schedules, including existing investment opportunities and competition amongst private equity funds. In terms of performance, we document that private equity generates excess returns on the order of five to eight percent per annum relative to the aggregate public equity market. Moreover, while we estimate the betas of the private equity funds’ portfolios to be greater than one, we show that on a risk-adjusted basis the excess value of the typical private equity fund is on the order of 24 percent relative to the present value of the invested capital. One interpretation of this magnitude is that it represents compensation for holding a 10-year illiquid investment

The Promise of Nuclear Fusion

This paper is a meta-study exploring the progression of nuclear fusion technology from a thermodynamic perspective. Thermodynamic parameters such as power, temperature, volume, efficiency and the fusion triple product (nTτ) were analysed in order to investigate the progress that has been achieved and the challenges that lay ahead. Nuclear fusion reactor designs, confinement systems, advantages and disadvantages are discussed herein. The findings conclude that there has been significant progress made in nuclear fusion research and development, to the point of being merely one order of magnitude away from commercial reactor conditions. It was also concluded that there is very little correlation between reactor volume and the current bench mark of fusion reactor performance, the fusion triple product.

The Investment Behavior of Buyout Funds:Theory and Evidence

This paper analyzes the determinants of buyout funds’ investment decisions. In a model in which the supply of capital is ‘sticky’ in the short run, we link the timing of funds’ investment decisions, their risk-taking behavior, and the returns they subsequently earn on their buyouts to changes in the demand for private equity, conditions in the credit market, and funds’ ability to influence their perceived talent in the market. Using a proprietary dataset of 207 buyout funds that invested in 2,274 buyout targets over the last two decades, we then investigate the implications of the model. Our dataset contains precisely dated cash inflows and outflows in every portfolio company, links every buyout target to an identifiable buyout fund, and is free from reporting and survivor biases. Thus, we are able to characterize every buyout fund’s precise investment choices. Our empirical findings are consistent with the model. First, established funds accelerate their investment flows and earn higher returns when investment opportunities improve, competition for deal flow eases, and credit market conditions loosen. Second, the investment behavior of first-time funds is less sensitive to market conditions. Third, younger funds invest in riskier buyouts, in an effort to establish a track record. Fourth, following periods of good performance, funds become more conservative, and this effect is stronger for younger funds