We ask whether loads affect investment flows in the US mutual fund industry. We argue that sales fees make the investment decision partially irreversible. Under these circumstances investors await for a stronger signal of managerial ability before committing to a new fund. This stronger signal...

We develop a unified model of the interactions among investors, fund companies and fund managers. We show that the interplay between a manager's incentives from her compensation structure and career concerns leads to a non-monotonic (approximately U-shaped) relation between her risk choices and...

In this paper, we analyze the effect of loads on the relationship between mutual fund performance and investment flows. Using a sample of US domestic non-industry-specific mutual funds from 1993 to 2006, we show that the presence of front loads increases the sensitivity of fund flows to less...

We develop a unified model of the interactions among investors, fund companies (represented by fund advisors) and fund managers. We show that the interplay between a manager's incentives from her compensation structure and career concerns leads to a non-monotonic (approximately U-shaped)...