We analyze why traditional returns-based tests of market timing ability suggest in many cases that mutual fund managers evidence a negative market timing ability. The explanation is based on asymmetric correlations of stocks, which establishes that correlations are stronger in bear markets than...

We analyze whether the idiosyncratic risk puzzle noted by Ang et al. (2006, 2009) can be explained by the existence of market participants with different investment horizons. We adopt a wavelet multiresolution analysis to decompose returns distribution for different time scales. Our approach...

There is strong evidence showing that stocks with higher levels of idiosyncratic risk provide relatively lower returns than stocks with lower levels of it. This paper points out that this negative idiosyncratic risk - expected returns relation is not pervasive over time, and provides a plausible...

We quantify the role of financial factors behind the sluggish post-crisis performance of European firms. We use a firm-bank-sovereign matched database to identify separate roles for firm and bank balance sheet weaknesses arising from changes in sovereign risk and aggregate demand conditions. We...

One of the major advantages of Equity mutual funds is that they allow retail investors to attain a diversified portfolio, which could not be easily obtained buying individual stocks. Our results indicate that mutual funds are not totally diversified; they hold a significant part of idiosyncratic...

This is a study of how contractual mechanisms can mitigate agency conflicts in sub-advised mutual funds. Sub-advising contracts allow fund families to expand their product offerings to include new investment styles and thereby gain market share. We show that costly contractual arrangements, such...

We quantify the role of financial leverage behind the sluggish post-crisis investment performance of European firms. We use a cross-country firm-bank matched database to identify separate roles for firm leverage, bank balance sheet weaknesses arising from sovereign risk, and aggregate demand...

This empirical paper analyzes the role of investment companies' core competencies in explaining the growing importance of outsourcing within the mutual fund industry. We demonstrate that management companies tend to allocate portfolios that are not within their core competencies (defined as the...