This paper empirically decomposes hedge fund excess return into factor timing, security selection, and risk premium. Portfolio-level tests show that security selection explains most of the excess return generated by hedge funds during 1994-2009, and the contribution of factor timing is small....

This paper empirically decomposes hedge fund excess return into factor timing, security selection, and risk premium using Lo (2008)'s performance measure. Portfolio-level tests show that security selection explains most of the excess return generated by hedge funds during 1994-2009, and the...