We exploit variation in the ancestries of U.S. equity mutual fund managers to show that ancestry affects portfolio decisions. Controlling for fund firm location, we find that funds overweight stocks from their managers’ ancestral home countries in their non-U.S. portfolio by 132 bps or 20.34%...

We propose that investor beliefs frequently “cross” in the sense that an investor may like company A, but dislike company B, while another investor may like company B, but dislike company A. Belief-crossing makes it almost impossible to construct a portfolio that is comprised solely of every...

We analyze the U.S. equity holdings of more than 3,000 non-U.S. based mutual funds from 22 countries and find robust evidence that fund managers strongly prefer to invest in stocks of U.S. firms that have presence in their home country. This "home bias" is independent of the degree of global...

We provide new evidence that international portfolios reflect the underlying heterogeneity in investors' beliefs. Using data on foreign sovereign debt holdings of European banks matched with their forecasts on future bond yields, we find that expecting higher returns and having more accurate...

We provide new evidence that international portfolios reflect the underlying heterogeneity in investors' beliefs. Using data on foreign sovereign debt holdings of European banks matched with their forecasts on future bond yields, we find that expecting higher returns and having more accurate...

We study how managers of funds created to invest for the long run behave when shielded from liquidity constraints and their investors' short-term needs. Using the universe of US target-date funds (TDFs), we document that asset managers exploit lower investor attention to deliver lower...