Open Markets Institute Launches New “Industry Spotlight” Series with Timely Examination of Private Equity
Industry Spotlight is designed to help decision makers understand both the patterns of behavior and the policy tools available to improve PE outcomes
The Open Markets Institute today released Turning Profit-Maximizing Financiers Into Stewards of the Public Interest, a new “Industry Spotlight” report on the private equity industry authored by Audrey Stienon. The report marks the first in a planned series examining a variety of industries’ market structures and how they either support or undermine public well-being.
Private equity firms now control an estimated $6.7 trillion in assets and own companies employing roughly 13 million Americans. With public pension funds investing an average of 14 percent of their assets in private equity, the industry plays an increasingly central role in shaping economic outcomes for workers, consumers, and communities.
Building on Stienon’s two landmark reports on private equity’s impact in the childcare sector, this new analysis expands the lens economy-wide and offers policymakers, advocates, labor and business leaders a clear, accessible guide to how the private equity model works, where it creates risk, and the interventions that can be used to protect markets and communities.
“Private equity is no longer a niche corner of finance—it is a powerful force shaping entire industries, from health care to housing to local services,” said Audrey Stienon, industrial policy program manager and the author of the report. “This Industry Spotlight is designed to demystify the private equity playbook and help leaders understand both the patterns of behavior and the policy tools available to ensure these firms serve not just investors, but also the broader public interest.”
A Civic Standard for Private Equity
The report proposes a clear benchmark: private equity should function as both a responsible financier and an accountable company steward—delivering returns to investors without imposing undue harm on the workers, consumers, suppliers, or communities that depend on the companies that they own.
A Policy-Advocacy Roadmap
To realign private equity with the public interest, the report outlines three key strategies:
1. Regulate Private Equity: Increase transparency, strengthen legal accountability, enforce antitrust laws, and reduce tax advantages that encourage excessive risk-taking.
2. Protect Industries from Harmful Practices: Reform sector-specific rules and public funding structures, strengthen worker and consumer protections, and support small businesses and alternative ownership models.
3. Build Countervailing Power: Empower workers, consumers, and investors to hold private equity firms accountable through stronger rights, oversight, and collective action.
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