Symposium on Private Firms: Reporting, Financing, and the Aggregate Economy 2025
Welcome to the second Symposium on Private Firms: Reporting, Financing, and the Aggregate Economy. The Symposium will be held on October 16th and 17th at the Gleacher Center at the University of Chicago. Conference attendance is by invitation only.
This symposium is made possible by the generous support of our two sponsors:
The goals of this unique conference are threefold:
- To bring together academics studying the private capital economy to share ideas and present their latest research.
- To allow academics to engage with regulators and practitioners, and hear about and discuss issues facing private firms with the hopes of stimulating new research ideas.
- To help academics interested in researching private firms better understand the setting and give them the opportunity to engage with representatives from private company dataset providers who will also be in attendance.
The conference includes a fireside chat between Ted Koenig (Chairman and CEO of Monroe Capital) and Steve Kaplan, plus six papers from leading Economics, Finance, and Accounting researchers and two panels. Confirmed panelists include Nicola Cetorelli, Isil Erel, David Scharfstein, Kelly Thompson, and Amir Sufi (Private Credit panel) and Teresa Fort, Eva Labro, Chad Syverson, and Eric Zwick (Management Practices, Productivity, and Dynamism panel).
Conference Organizing Committee:
Young Soo Jang (Penn State)
Michael Minnis (Chicago Booth)
Amir Sufi (Chicago Booth)
Andrew Sutherland (MIT Sloan)
Conference Steering Committee:
Matthias Breuer (Columbia University)
Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan (Brown University)
Steve Kaplan (Chicago Booth)
Scott Stern (MIT Sloan)
David Thesmar (MIT Sloan)
To register your interest in attending, submit a paper, or ask a question, please email privatefirmsymposium@gmail.com. The deadline for registration and submissions is August 31.
Schedule
Thursday, October 16, 2025
Note: all times below are CDT
| 11:30 am - 1:00 pm |
Lunch |
| 1:00 pm - 1:15 pm | Opening Remarks |
| 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm |
Paper Session 1 - Moderator: Michael Minnis Modernizing Access to Credit for Younger Entrepreneurs: From FICO to Cash Flow Democratizing Private Markets: Private Equity Performance of Individual Investors |
| 2:45 pm - 3:15 pm | Break |
| 3:15 pm - 4:15 pm |
Panel Session 1 - Moderator Amir Sufi Private Credit. Panelists: Nicola Cetorelli, Isil Erel, David Scharfstein, Kelly Thompson |
| 4:15 pm - 4:30 pm | Break |
| 4:30 pm - 5:15 pm |
Paper Session 2 - Moderator: Andrew Sutherland Why is Private Lending So Popular |
| 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm |
Fireside chat - Moderator Amir Sufi Cocktail hour, dinner, and fireside chat with Ted Koenig and Steve Kaplan |
Friday, October 17, 2025
| 7:30 am - 8:30 am | Breakfast |
| 8:30 am - 9:30 am |
Panel Session 2 - Moderator: Young Soo Jang Private Firm Management Practices, Productivity, and Dynamism. Panelists: Teresa Fort, Eva Labro, Eric Zwick. Moderator: Chad Syverson |
| 9:30 am - 9:45 am | Break |
| 9:45 am - 10:30 am |
Paper Session 3 - Moderator: Young Soo Jang Private Equity and Workers: Modeling and Measuring Monopsony, Implicit Contract, and Efficient Reallocation |
| 10:30 am - 11:00 am | Break |
| 11:00 am - 12:30 pm |
Paper Session 4 - Moderator: Andrew Sutherland How Private Companies Win the Market's Attention Credit Card Entrepreneurs |
| 12:30 pm | Boxed lunch and departure |
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Ufuk Akcigit | University of Chicago |
| Li Azinovic-Yang | Chicago Booth |
| Brad Badertscher | University of Notre Dame |
| Douglas Baird | University of Chicago Law School |
| Meghna Baskar | Chicago Booth |
| Darren Bernard | University of Washington |
| Brigham Brau | UNC Chapel Hill |
| Vince Buccola | University of Chicago Law School |
| Shun Cao | University of Maryland |
| Tony Casey | The University of Chicago Law School |
| Nicola Cetorelli | Federal Reserve Bank of New York |
| Samuel Chang | Chicago Booth |
| Shirui Chen | Chicago Booth |
| Jung Ho Choi | Stanford University |
| Emanuele Colonnelli | Chicago Booth |
| Keith Crouch | MSCI |
| Tetiana Davydiuk | Johns Hopkins University |
| Doug Diamond | Chicago Booth |
| Isil Erel | Ohio State University |
| Marco Errico | Chicago Booth |
| Kawin Ethayarajh | Chicago Booth |
| Joan Farre-Mensa | University of Illinois Chicago |
| Kathleen Fitzgerald | Chicago Booth |
| Emily Fleming | Chicago Booth |
| Teresa Fort | Dartmouth |
| Francois Gourio | Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago |
| Oleg Gredil | Tulane University |
| Laura Gu | Chicago Booth |
| Piyush Gupta | The Ohio State University |
| Umit Gurun | University of Texas at Dallas |
| Christopher Hair | Brigham Young University |
| Bianca He | Chicago Booth |
| John Heaton | Chicago Booth |
| Harry Hendrix | Moody's |
| Kyle Herkenhoff | University of Minnesota |
| Bart Hobijn | Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago |
| Young Soo Jang | Penn State |
| Ron Kahn | Lincoln International |
| Steve Kaplan | Chicago Booth |
| Hyunseob Kim | Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago |
| Ginha Kim | Chicago Booth |
| Katja Kisseleva | Frankfurt School of Finance & Management |
| Anya Kleymenova | Federal Reserve Board |
| Ted Koenig | Monroe Capital |
| Jesse Yu-Chieh Kuo | Chicago Booth |
| Eva Labro | UNC Chapel Hill |
| Lawrence Levine | Lincoln International |
| Jiancheng (Duncan) Liu | University of Macau |
| Lisa Liu | Columbia Business School |
| Miao Liu | Boston College |
| Neesha Mathur | PREQIN |
| Charlie McClure | Chicago Booth |
| Sean McMahon | Chicago Booth |
| Angela Michael | CEO-level Operator | Board Director | Strategic Growth & Value Creator | ex -JPM |
| Jeremy Michels | Purdue University |
| Michael Minnis | Chicago Booth |
| Vrinda Mittal | UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School |
| Lauren Mostrom | Chicago Booth |
| Maximilian Muhn | Chicago Booth, Goethe University Frankfurt |
| Jungu Myung | The Ohio State University |
| Valeri Nikolaev | Chicago Booth |
| Yoshio Nozawa | University of Toronto |
| Jim Omartian | University of Michigan |
| Lubos Pastor | Chicago Booth |
| Jordan Richmond | University of Maryland |
| David Robinson | Duke University and NBER |
| Subhradip Sarker | Chicago Booth |
| David Scharfstein | Harvard Business School |
| Jordan Schoenfeld | The Ohio State University |
| Nemit Shroff | MIT Sloan |
| Zirui Song | MIT Sloan |
| Scott Stern | MIT Sloan |
| DJ Stockbridge | Boston College |
| Amir Sufi | Chicago Booth |
| Andrew Sutherland | MIT Sloan |
| Chad Syverson | Chicago Booth |
| David Thesmar | MIT Sloan |
| Kelly Thompson | KBRA |
| Michael Ultsh | PREQIN |
| Petra Vokata | The Ohio State University |
| Jizhou Wang | Chicago Booth |
| Lucas Weiss | Lincoln International |
| Dmitry Yakovlev | International Monetary Fund |
| Iris Ye | Chicago Booth |
| Hanbyul Yoon | Chicago Booth |
| Isabella Zhang | Chicago Booth |
| Peize Zhang | Chicago Booth |
| Eric Zwick | Chicago Booth |
| Data Base/Provider | Category |
|---|---|
| Aberdeen CiTDB | Other |
| Allvue | Investments & transactions |
| AlphaSense | Credit bureaus & data aggregators |
| Alto Analytics | Other |
| Amadeus | Credit bureaus & data aggregators |
| AVCJ | Investments & transactions |
| Bloomberg | Credit bureaus & data aggregators |
| BrokerCheck | Administrative data |
| Builtwith | Other |
| MSCI Private Capital | Investments & transactions |
| Capitol IQ/S&P | Credit bureaus & data aggregators |
| CBInsights | Other |
| Census | Administrative data |
| CEPRES | Investments & transactions |
| Cobalt | Investments & transactions |
| Creditreform | Credit bureaus & data aggregators |
| Crunchbase | Investments & transactions |
| Current Establishment Survey | Credit bureaus & data aggregators |
| DealEdge | Investment & transactions |
| Destatis | Administrative data |
| Diligent | Investments & transactions |
| Dun & Bradstreet | Credit bureaus & data aggregators |
| Eureka Private Equity | Investment & transactions |
| Eurostat | Administrative data |
| eVestment | Investment & transactions |
| Factiva | Credit bureaus & data aggregators |
| Factset | Credit bureaus & data aggregators |
| Federal Reserve Survey of Small Business Finance | Administrative data |
| Federal Reserve Y-14Q | Administrative data |
| Hoberg-Phillips Data Library | Academic data |
| IRS | Administrative data |
| JOLTS Micro Data (BLS) | Administrative data |
| Kauffman Firm Survey | Academic data |
| KBRA Direct Lending Deals data | Credit bureaus & data aggregators |
| Lightcast | Other |
| Lincoln International | Investments & transactions |
| Longitudinal Business Database (Census and BLS) | Administrative data |
| Longitudinal Employer-Household Database (Census) | Administrative data |
| LSEG | Investments & transactions |
| Mergr | Investments & transactions |
| Moody/Orbis | Credit bureaus & data aggregators |
| National Establishment Time Series (NETS) | Administrative data |
| Occupational and Wage Establishment Survey (BLS) | Administrative data |
| OpenCorporates | Credit bureaus & data aggregators |
| Orbis | Credit bureaus & data aggregators |
| Palico | Investments & transactions |
| PayNet/Equifax | Credit bureaus & data aggregators |
| Pitchbook | Investments & transactions |
| Powerlytics | Credit bureaus & data aggregators |
| Pregin | Investments & transactions |
| Private Equity International | Investments & transactions |
| PrivCo | Investments & transactions |
| Refinitiv | Investments & transactions |
| Rocksling | Investments & transactions |
| Risk Management Association | Credit bureaus & data aggregators |
| Sageworks/Abrigo | Credit bureaus & data aggregators |
| Startup Cartography Project | Academic data |
| Thomson VenturExpert | Investment & transactions |
| Tracxn | Investments & transactions |
| UCC filings/Randall Reily | Other |
| Unquote | Investments & transactions |
| USPTO Patent Database | Other |
| VentureSource | Investments & transactions |
| Wayback Machine | Other |
Hotel Information
We suggest staying at InterContinental, Hyatt Regency, Royal Sonesta, or Loews hotel. These hotels offers the shortest distance to the Gleacher Center.