The Private Equity Market: An Overveiw

The private equity market is an important source of funds for start‐up firms, private middle‐market firms, firms in financial distress, and public firms seeking buyout financing. Over the past fifteen years it has been the fastest growing corporate finance market, by an order of magnitude over the public equity and public and private bond markets. Despite its dramatic growth and increased significance for corporate finance, the private equity market has received little attention. This study examines the economic foundations of the private equity market, analyzes its development and current role in corporate finance, and describes the market's institutional structure. It examines the reasons or the market's explosive growth over the past fifteen years and highlights the main characteristics of that growth. It provides data on returns to private equity investors and analyzes the major secular and cyclical influences on returns. It describes the important investors, intermediaries, issuers, and agents in the market and their interactions with each other. Drawing on data from trade journals, the study also estimates the market's size as of year‐end 1995.     

'Affordable' death in the United States: an action plan based on lessons learned from the Nursing Economic$ special issue

An eight-point action plan is proposed for lowering costs associated with end-of-life health care in the United States, as well as improving the quality of life experienced by patients and their families. This action plan was derived from an analysis of the six articles presented in this special issue of Nursing Economic$. The two major features of this action plan are: (a) expansion of hospice and palliative care, as well as (b) increased use of advance directives. Additionally, as pre-conditions for the effective operation of this action plan, the political, cultural, and legislative contexts that merit attention are discussed. Finally, arguments as to the desirability, feasibility, and sustainability of this action plan are offered.     

The influence of thrift competition on bank business loan rates

This article assesses the competitive influence of thrift institutions on the pricing of commercial loans made by commercial banks. Using detailed survey information on the rates that individual banks charge for various types of commercial loans, we attempt to determine which of various proposed weightings of thrift institutions, when incorporated in measures of market concentration, best explains loan rates. After considering several weighting schemes, including those designed to approximate current regulatory practice in analyzing the competitive impact of proposed bank mergers, we find that in all but one of the cases examined, the use of a positive weight for thrift institutions explains bank loan rates, if anything, more poorly than does a weighting of zero for such institutions.