In The Investment Game in Private Equity, Mika Lehtimäki discusses the legal and contractual relationship between investors and managers of private equity funds as well as the economic incentives governing their relationship. Based on this analysis he sets out a game-theoretical framework for evaluating the role of regulation and contract in asset management.

He argues that the contractual ‘investment game’ between the parties, noting their outcome maximisation objective, results in much of the current fund regulation being non-optimal from the investor perspective. This means that the parties are able to control, subject to qualifications relating to the bargaining process, their relationship and the protect their interests contractually instead of resorting to extensive regulation.