This paper studies the role of mutual fund yield in driving investor flows and performance of bond funds. Using two … common measures, the SEC yield and 12-month distribution yield, we find strong evidence that investors tend to chase bond … funds with higher yields, even after controlling for total fund returns and fund ratings. Although bond funds with higher …

Bond excess returns can be predicted by macro factors, however, large parts remain still unexplained. We apply a novel … term structure model to decompose bond excess returns into expected excess returns (risk premia) and the unexpected part … possible determinants of bond excess returns. We find that the expected part of bond excess returns is driven by macro factors …