Abstract: The recent paper by Goetzmann et al. (2002) suggests that fund managers subject to a performance review have an adverse incentive to engage in portfolio strategies that have theunfortunate attribute that they can expose the fund investor to significant downside risk.(...)

The role of institutional investors on the register constitutes a significant puzzle. Concentrated investors could intervene (i.e., exercise 'voice') so as to improve firm governance mechanisms. Alternatively, acting as informed traders, they could effectively discipline management if they adopt...

We propose a new measure of individual security timing ability as distinct from (aggregate) market timing ability. Security timing captures the proportion of potential returns generated by the fund manager over an evaluation period. Using a unique database of daily transactions, we examine the...

This study investigates the tax efficiency of actively managed equity funds by conducting a previously unaddressed natural experiment. Specifically, we examine whether asset sales were timed to take advantage of the introduction of a substantial discount to realized capital gains when the...

We investigate several implications of activism by institutional investors/monitors in the microstructure equilibrium postulated by Noe (2002). The decision whether or not to monitor, which reveals the firm's value to the fund, is stochastic. Empirically, we show that net-of-transaction-cost...

This study examines the effect of institutional investor influence on the structure of corporate boards. We focus on investor influences with respect to reducing board size and increasing board independence. Measures of institutional influence are negatively related to board size and positively...

Recent results from the hedge fund literature provide evidence that option-based risk factors may be a significant factor in managed fund returns. By examining a unique database of high-frequency holdings and transactions from a representative sample of forty Australian equity funds we find that...

Utilizing a database of daily institutional fund manager trades, we examine the contribution of strategic trading at quarter-end associated with potential 'portfolio pumping' or 'ramping up' of reported stock prices around quarter ends. We provide the first direct evidence that active fund...

Prospect theory of Kahneman and Tversky (1979) suggests that traders will typically lock in gains and gamble on losses. In extreme situations such behavior can lead to significant downside risk for fund investors. Weisman (2002) uses the term informationless investing to describe this behavior,...

In a sequence of trades in the same direction across fund managers, we expect the long-term return of a trade to be increasing in the number of subsequent trades if fund managers' trading is driven by private information. In contrast, information cascades imply the lack of such a relationship....