Private Equity experienced dramatic flutuations in investment activity in line with the turbulences of financial markets in recent years. Claudia Sommer develops a theoretical framework of factors driving private equity investment activity and the resulting performance implications. Using a data set of more than 40,000 European transations between 1990 and 2009 she applies a variety of econometrial approaches and shows how neoclassical aspects, information asymmetries, agency conflicts, and market timing contribute to the dynamics in the private equity market. In a performance analysis of more than 1,300 European private equity funds, she reveals how fund performance is linked to investment activity. ​