Private equity has outperformed listed markets throughout the major crises of the past 30 years but only matched equity performance in boom years, new research shows today.

The latest study by Oliver Gottschalg, a professor at HEC School of Management, and Munich-based fund-of-funds Golding Capital Partners shows private equity investments returned 15.5% more than listed stocks when markets fell by at least 5% a year between 1977 and 2009.