This paper aims to present the level of harmonization of investment services in relation to the European investment funds’ market. The author, in an attempt to systematize different types of investment services in Europe, refers to the European Freedoms and presents the key reasons for the...

The aim of this study is the analysis of so called socially responsible investments (SRI). First, the performance of SRI equity investment funds and equity indices is investigated using Jensen´s alpha as performance measure. The analysis considers market timing strategies of the fund management...

This chapter focuses on institutional investors in the German financial markets. Institutional investors are specialized financial intermediaries who collect and manage funds on behalf of small investors toward specific objectives in terms of risk, return and maturity. The major types of...

This paper first highlights the structural features of shadow banking in the euro area, focussing on investment funds. It then discusses the potential systemic risks that the recent expansion of the investment fund sector presents. While investment funds provide important intermediation services...

In this paper we provide evidence that the post-issue accounting profitability of firms underwritten by bank affiliated underwriters that are also borrowers from the same bank in the IPO (Initial Public Offerings) year is significantly better than average, but that the stock price performance of...

Long-term persistence of low interest rates and a decline in attractiveness of investing in low-interest bank deposits generate additional demand for investments in investment funds. In such a situation, it is expected to have widespread use of the investment efficiency measures which take into...

Investment funds are key institutions for understanding the dynamics of a country's financial wealth and for analysing the interaction between wealth owners and the macroeconomic policy management. This text has three fundamental objectives: firstly, it seeks to construct a profit proxy of the...

We study the impact of a liquidity shock affecting investment funds on the financing conditions of firms. The abrupt liquidity needs of investment funds, triggered by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, prompted a retrenchment from bond purchases of firms and a withdrawal of short term funds...

Investment funds hold a disproportionately larger fraction of domestic relative to foreign stocks. Stock market development and familiarity (language and distance) are considered key determinants for home bias. The literature neglects however that investors often invest in foreign funds...

This paper aims to present the main features of an important segment of the Brazilian financial market, the investment funds. These funds, along with insurers and pension funds, constitute the institutional investors or so-called money managers (Minsky, 1989). The arguments are organized as...