Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford are almost as famous for their wealth as they are for the education they provide. Harvard’s endowment fund is $US50 billion ($76 billion), while Yale, Stanford and Princeton all have more than $US35 billion.
These endowments are also renowned as successful investors. Yale’s fund has returned, on average, 10 per cent over the past 23 years, comfortably beating the 6 per cent on a 60:40 portfolio of US equities and bonds.
Jonathan KearnsEconomistJonathan Kearns is chief economist at Challenger and Adjunct Fellow at Macquarie University. He previously held a range of senior roles at the Reserve Bank of Australia.
