Mutual fund families are increasingly assigning traders to manage corporate bond mutual funds. Using this setting to study the role of traders in investment management, we document that trader managers identify and exploit short-term trading opportunities at lower transaction costs. These skills...

Mutual fund families are increasingly assigning traders to manage corporate bond mutual funds. Using this setting to study the role of traders in investment management, we document that trader managers identify and exploit short-term trading opportunities at lower transaction costs. These skills...

Section 529 plans have experienced tremendous growth, yet we know little about how the incentives of their sponsors (i.e., states) and program managers affect investors. We study how the incentives of these key players relate to plan characteristics. Plans where states exhibit a greater tendency...

To best utilize labor, companies need to match employees' skills with jobs that best fit those skills. Exploiting unique features of the mutual fund industry, we identify instances when this matching happens for fund managers and study its consequences. After fund managers are matched, they...

Section 529 plans have experienced tremendous growth, yet we know little about how the incentives of their sponsors (i.e., states) and program managers affect investors. We study how the incentives of these key players relate to plan characteristics. Plans where states exhibit a greater tendency...

Using a novel return-based method to detect allocations of corporate bond offerings, which are underpriced on average, we find that mutual funds most active in the primary market generate significant alpha and outperform those that are less active. Our evidence suggests that underwriters direct...

To best utilize labor, companies need to match employees’ skills with jobs that best fit those skills. Exploiting unique features of the mutual fund industry, we identify instances when this matching happens for fund managers and study its consequences. After fund managers are matched, they...

Using a novel return-based method to detect allocations of corporate bond offerings, which are underpriced on average, we find that mutual funds most active in the primary market generate significant alpha and outperform those that are less active. Our evidence suggests that underwriters direct...

We introduce a novel measure, valuation accuracy score (VAS), to assess the valuation skills of investment-grade corporate bond mutual funds. VAS recognizes funds holding a higher (lower) fraction of underpriced (overpriced) corporate bonds as ex-ante having better valuation skills. VAS is...