(Forbes) Assets managed by diverse-owned firms have only increased by a tenth of a percentage point to 1.4% of the $82.2 trillion US asset management industry since 2011 despite extensive investor commitments to increase the diversity of their investment portfolios. Clear research on the performance, risk and financial diversification benefits of diverse managers is necessary for further progress.
Accordingly, last month, Institutional Allocators for Diversity Equity and Inclusion (IADEI), a consortium of over 500 asset owners seeking to drive diversity, equity, and inclusion in asset management, launched its research library and presented the results of its private equity diversity literature review. The library is now one of the largest open-source collections of research on the impact of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) on asset management. Private equity (venture capital, growth equity, and buyout) performance is of particular interest in part because private equity outperformed private debt, real estate, natural resources, and infrastructure over both the past year and the past ten years.
IADEI finds that DEI has the potential to improve performance and reduce risk in private equity portfolios. At the same time, more rigorous research and research covering more dimensions of diversity are critical. Furthermore, most of the diversity research focuses on venture capital, and gauging the impact of diversity on other strategies is important.
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