Predictably Bad Investments: Evidence from Venture Capitalists
Predictably Bad Investments: Evidence from Venture Capitalists ArXiv ID: ssrn-4135861 “View on arXiv” Authors: Unknown Abstract Do institutional investors invest efficiently? To study this question I combine a novel dataset of over 16,000 startups (representing over $9 billion in investm Keywords: Venture Capital, Institutional Investors, Startup Investment, Portfolio Management, Efficiency, Private Equity / Venture Capital Complexity vs Empirical Score Math Complexity: 3.0/10 Empirical Rigor: 7.0/10 Quadrant: Street Traders Why: The paper uses standard machine learning methods rather than advancing novel mathematics, but it employs a large, novel dataset and rigorous empirical analysis (counterfactual portfolio construction, robustness checks, and measurement of economic magnitude) to backtest investment strategies. flowchart TD RQ["Research Question: Do institutional investors invest efficiently?"] --> I["Inputs: 16,000+ startups & $9B+ investments"] I --> M["Methodology: Performance vs. Investment Timing analysis"] M --> CP["Computation: Out-of-sample return predictions"] CP --> F1["Predictably Bad Investments: Poor timing leads to predictable low returns"] F1 --> F2["Outcomes: Evidence of inefficiency & suboptimal portfolio management"]