To explore the rationality and competitiveness of the mutual fund industry, we analyze the alpha of active and index mutual funds from a global sample of more than 60,000 equity and fixed income funds and test the null hypothesis that alphas to investors are zero. We distinguish between...

We examine the relationship between deviating from the benchmark and subsequent performance for hedge funds. We propose a simple new measure of benchmark deviations, termed the Dispersion Contribution Index (DCI), which is based on a fund's return-distance from the mean return of same-style...

This study examines fund manager skill using a sample of Real Estate Investment Trust Unit Investment Trusts (REIT UITs). It also investigates how REIT UIT performance compares to investing in REIT mutual funds. Are REIT UIT fund managers able to select REITs that deliver superior performance?...

The past couple of decades have seen a significant shift from active to passive investment strategies. We examine how this shift affects financial stability through its impacts on: (i) funds' liquidity and redemption risks, (ii) asset-market volatility, (iii) asset-management industry...

We examine whether investor sentiment affects hedge fund companies' decision to start new funds. We find significantly more fund inceptions in hot markets than in cold markets. Moreover, funds opened in hot markets exhibit weaker subsequent performance, higher risk of fraud, and shorter...

This paper examines how equity mutual fund managers make decisions on investing in ESG stocks. Using investor flows to proxy for fund managers' pecuniary incentive, we show that mutual funds with flows highly sensitive to performance invest less in ESG stocks, while funds with flows positively...

We propose a methodology to evaluate private equity investments by using investor-specific stochastic discount factors. The methodology allows a direct way of decomposing an investor's private-equity return into a risk-compensation and an "alpha". It also helps determine whether a given investor...

This paper combines the use of portfolio holdings data and Principal Component Analysis to create synthetic fund indexes. Synthetic funds are funds portfolios which aim to duplicate a fund market in order to represent alternative benchmarks to compare the performance of investment funds. Our...

The objective of this paper is to show similarities or differences of funds' performance according to their domiciliation. Based on performance-risk approach, it seems to be a little evidence of differences between groups of domicile using a classical descriptive analysis. In order to improve...

Hedge Fund returns are often highly serially correlated mainly due to illiquidity exposures given that investments in such securities tend to be inactively traded and associated market prices are not always readily available. Following that, observed returns of such alternative investments tend...