This paper first examines the similarities and differences in the determinants of the three mutual fund exit forms: liquidation, within-family merger, and across-family merger. All defunct mutual fund portfolios are shown to have smaller size and lower inflows. A family is less willing to...

Due to the multiple-class structure of mutual funds, the entry decisions by fund families include two separate decisions: the introduction of new (single-class or multiple-class) portfolios and the introduction of new classes for existing portfolios. The two decisions are based on very different...

International equity fund investors do not flock into funds with the highest recent raw returns but pay more attention to risk-adjusted performance. Except for the riskiest investment objectives, investors chase investment objectives with high returns. While international growth fund investors...

Unlike equity fund investors, bond fund investors do not flock into funds with the highest recent raw returns. Instead, they pay more attention to risk-adjusted performance. In addition, bond fund investors, municipal bond fund and government security fund investors in particular, appear to be...

Despite the growth of investments by individuals in bond funds, no research has investigated the determinants of these money flows into the funds. This study examined such determinants and the behavior of bond fund investors in the 1992-2001 period. Bond fund investors chase risk-adjusted...

This paper examines the similarities and differences in the determinants of the three mutual fund exit forms: Liquidation, within-family merger, and across-family merger. All defunct mutual fund portfolios have smaller size and lower inflows. A family is less willing to liquidate a portfolio but...

Fund families typically claim that closing a fund protects the fund's superior performance by preventing it from growing too large to be managed efficiently. Even though funds with better performance and larger size are more likely to be closed, there is no evidence that closing a fund can...