This Article offers a broad theory of what distinguishes investment funds from ordinary companies, with ramifications for how these funds are understood and regulated. The central claim is that investment funds (i.e., mutual funds, hedge funds, private equity funds and their cousins) are...

Most of the performance measures proposed in the financial and academic literature are subject to be gamed in an active management framework (Goetzmann et al., 2007). One of the main reasons of this drawback is due to an incomplete characterization by these measures of studied return...

Theoretical models imply fund size and performance should be negatively linked. However, empiricists have failed to uncover consistent support for this negative relation. Using a new econometric framework which includes fund-specific sensitivities to decreasing returns to scale, we find a both...

We study the asset allocation problem of an institutional investor (LP) that invests in stocks, bonds, and private equity (PE). PE investments are risky, illiquid, and long-term. The LP repeatedly commits capital to PE funds, and this capital is gradually called and eventually distributed back...

This paper proposes a theory of the equilibrium liquidity premia of private equity funds and explores its asset-pricing implications. The theory is based on the notion that investors are exposed to the risk of facing surprise liquidity shocks, which upon arrival force them to liquidate their...

Limited partnerships are attractive investment vehicles for investors because, as limited partners, investors cannot lose more than their invested capital despite the leverage of the partnership's portfolio. Consistent with this, the availability of tax losses to a limited partner is also more...

The literature dealing with price setting and quality assumes by default that investors believe that mutual funds are vertically differentiated. We consider also the case where they do not believe it and we show that it may call the market into question. To solve this problem we assume the...

Following the Pension Protection Act of 2006, there was a sharp increase in the use of TDFs as default investment options in defined contribution retirement plans. We document large differences in realized TDF returns and risk profiles, even for funds with the same target retirement date. Using...

The investment fund sector has expanded dramatically since the crisis of 2008-2009. As the sector grows, so do the implications of its risk-taking for the wider financial system and real economy. This paper provides empirical evidence for the existence of widespread risk-taking incentives in the...