Using data for more than 800 college and university endowment funds over 2003-2011, we provide a comprehensive analysis of the spending policies used in practice as well as how frequently and why those mandates are revised over time. Given the long-term and relatively static nature of the...

In this paper we investigate the role of asset allocation in the performance of college and university endowment funds. Our analysis is based on a comprehensive dataset detailing the investment practice and performance of these institutional investors from 1984 to 2005. Despite their ability to...

Several recent studies establish that more highly concentrated portfolios produce superior risk-adjusted returns. The untested premise of this literature is that it is the most skillful managers who hold the most concentrated portfolios. In this study, we formally examine the implicit assertion...