RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Yale’s Endowment Returns: Case Study in GIPS Interpretation Difficulties JF The Journal of Alternative Investments FD Institutional Investor Journals SP 97 OP 103 DO 10.3905/jai.2013.15.4.097 VO 15 IS 4 A1 Ludovic Phalippou YR 2013 UL https://pm-research.com/content/15/4/97.abstract AB For nonpublic companies, the Global Investment Performance Standard recommends using a since-inception IRR to report performance. This article shows that such a figure can be misleading. The return of the Yale Endowment in private equity is taken as a case study. It is shown that an investor with a long and “average” track record in venture capital computing its return following the GIPS recommendations would display a 30% return over a long horizon and that this number would hardly change in any year from 2000 to 2010, which is similar to what is shown in the annual reports of Yale Endowment. The results imply that it may be worth reconsidering the performance metric advocated by GIPS.TOPICS: Real assets/alternative investments/private equity, information providers/credit ratings, performance measurement