"This article provides an overview of the debate about private equity (PE) in Europe, with a focus on the performance of the firms taken over and the pay, conditions and job prospects of the workers they employ. It reviews quantitative indicators for the rise of PE in recent years and explains how the PE business model functions. The main concerns raised by the PE model are identified, and these are then confronted with the evidence from academic and other studies. Finally, some implications of relevance to the debate about the 'varieties of capitalism' within the European Union are also drawn."

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