Steven Kaplan

Steven Neil Kaplan conducts research on issues in private equity, venture capital, entrepreneurial finance, corporate governance and corporate finance. He has published papers in a number of academic and business journals. Kaplan is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and an associate editor of the Journal of Financial Economics.

He ranks among the top 60 in paper downloads and in paper citations (out of over 280,000 authors) on SSRN (Social Science Research Network). He is the co-creator of the Kaplan-Schoar PME (Public Market Equivalent) private equity benchmarking approach. A Fortune Magazine article referred to him as "probably the foremost private equity scholar in the galaxy.”

Kaplan teaches advanced MBA and executive courses in entrepreneurial finance and private equity, corporate finance, corporate governance, and wealth management. BusinessWeek named him one of the top 12 business school teachers in the country.

Professor Kaplan co-founded the entrepreneurship program at Booth. With his students, he helped start Booth’s business plan competition, the New Venture Challenge (NVC), which has spawned over one hundred companies that have raised almost $600 million and created over $4 billion in value including GrubHub and Braintree/Venmo.

Kaplan serves on the boards of Morningstar, Zayo Group and the Illinois Venture Capital Association. He has been a member of the faculty since 1988.

He received his AB, summa cum laude, in Applied Mathematics and Economics from Harvard College and earned a PhD in Business Economics from Harvard University.

Publications

• With Paul Gompers and Vladimir Mukharlyamov, “What Do Private Equity Firms (Say They) Do?” Journal of Financial Economics (2016).
• With Robert S. Harris and Tim Jenkinson, “How Do Private Equity Investments Perform Compared to Public Equity?” Journal of Investment Management (2016).
• With Robert S. Harris and Tim Jenkinson, “Private Equity Performance: What Do We Know?” with Robert Harris and Tim Jenkinson, Journal of Finance (2014).
• With Tobias J. Moskowitz and Berk Sensoy, “The Effects of Stock Lending on Security Prices: An Experiment,” Journal of Finance (2013).
• With Joshua Rauh, “It’s the Market: The Broad-Based Rise in the Return to Top Talent,” Journal of Economic Perspectives (2013).
• “Executive Compensation and Corporate Governance in the U.S.: Perceptions, Facts and Challenges,” Cato Papers on Public Policy (2012).
• With Mark Klebanov and Morten Sorensen, “Which CEO Characteristics and Abilities Matter,” Journal of Finance (2012).
• With Bernadette Minton , “How has CEO Turnover Changed?” International Review of Finance (2012).
• With Josh Rauh, “Wall Street and Main Street: What Contributes to the Rise in the Highest Incomes?” Review of Financial Studies (2010).
• With Berk Sensoy and Per Strömberg, “Should Investors Bet on the Jockey or the Horse? Evidence from the Evolution of Firms from Early Business Plans to Public Companies,” Journal of Finance, (2009).
• With Per Strömberg, “Leveraged Buyouts and Private Equity” Journal of Economic Perspectives (2009).
• “Are U.S. CEOs Overpaid?” Academy of Management Perspectives (2008).
• With Fredric Martel and Per Strömberg, “How Do Legal Differences and Learning Affect Financial Contracts?” Journal of Financial Intermediation (2007).
• With Antoinette Schoar, “Private Equity Performance: Returns, Persistence and Capital Flows,” Journal of Finance (2005).
• With Per Strömberg, “Characteristics, Contracts, and Actions: Evidence From Venture Capitalist Analyses,” Journal of Finance (2004).
• With Pekka Hietala and David T. Robinson, “What is the Price of Hubris? Using Takeover Battles to Infer Overpayments and Synergies,” Financial Management (2003).
• With Bengt Holmstrom, “The State of U.S. Corporate Governance: What’s Right and What’s Wrong?” Journal of Applied Corporate Finance (2003).
• With Per Strömberg, “Financial Contracting Theory Meets the Real World: Evidence From Venture CapitalContracts,” Review of Economic Studies (2003).
• With Luis Garicano, “The Effects of Business-to-Business E-Commerce on Transaction Costs,” Journal of Industrial Economics (2001).
• With Bengt Holmström, “Corporate Governance and Takeovers in the U.S.: Making sense of the ‘80s and ‘90s,” Journal of Economic Perspectives (2001).
• with Per Strömberg, “Venture Capitalists As Principals: Contracting, Screening, and Monitoring,” American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings (2001).
• With Mohan Sawhney, “B2B E-Commerce Hubs: Towards a Taxonomy of Business Models,” Harvard Business Review (2000).
• With Gregor Andrade, “How Costly is Financial (not Economic) Distress? Evidence from Highly Leveraged Transactions that Became Distressed,” Journal of Finance (1998).
• “The Evolution of U.S. Corporate Governance: We Are All Henry Kravis Now,” Journal of Private Equity (1997).
• With Luigi Zingales, “Do Financing Constraints Explain Why Investment Is Correlated With Cash Flow?” Quarterly Journal of Economics (1997).
• With Richard Ruback, “The Valuation of Cash Flow Forecasts,” Journal of Finance (1995).
• With Bernadette Minton, “Appointments of Outsiders to Japanese Boards: Determinants and Implications for Managers,” Journal of Financial Economics (1994).
• “Top Executive Rewards and Firm Performance: A Comparison of Japan and the U.S.,” Journal of Political Economy (1994).
• “Top Executives, Turnover, and Firm Performance in Germany,” Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization (1994).
• With Jeremy Stein, “The Evolution of Buyout Pricing and Financial Structure in the 1980s,” Quarterly Journal of Economics (1993).
• With Michael Weisbach, “The Success of Acquisitions: Evidence from Divestitures,” Journal of Finance (1992).
• “The Staying Power of Leveraged Buyouts,” Journal of Financial Economics (1991).
• With Jeremy Stein, “How Risky is the Debt in Highly Leveraged Transactions?”, Journal of Financial Economics (1990).
• With David Reishus, “Outside Directorships and Corporate Performance,” Journal of Financial Economics (1990).
• “The Effects of Management Buyouts on Operating Performance and Value,” Journal of Financial Economics (1989).
• “Management Buyouts: Evidence on Taxes as a Source of Value,” Journal of Finance (1989).