We identify fixed-income mutual funds as an important contributor to the unusually high selling pressure in liquid asset markets during the Covid-19 crisis. We show that mutual fund liquidity transformation led to pronounced investor outflows. In meeting redemptions, funds followed a pecking...

Identifying outperforming mutual funds ex-ante is a notoriously difficult task. We use machine learning to exploit fund characteristics and construct portfolios of equity funds that earn positive and significant out-of-sample alpha net of all costs. In contrast, alphas of portfolios selected...

This paper examines the role conviction plays in asset management and its relationship with investment returns. We measure the strength of fund manager conviction through a fund’s Active Share, i.e., the extent to which an investment portfolio differs from its benchmark index. First, we show...

This paper examines the causes and consequences of hedge fund investments in exchange traded funds (ETFs) using U.S. data from 1998 to 2018. The data indicate that transient hedge funds and quasi-indexer hedge funds are substantially more likely to invest in ETFs. Unexpected hedge fund inflows...

This paper studies the relationship between mutual fund manager investment horizons and managerial risk-taking decisions. I find that in general mutual funds reporting longer maximum evaluation horizons have lower risk levels. The low risk levels helped these funds mitigate their losses in the...

This study examines whether the standard compensation contract in the hedge fund industry aligns managers' incentives with investors' interests. I show empirically that managers' compensation increases when fund assets grow, even when diseconomies of scale in fund performance exist. Thus,...

We examine the relation between indexing and active management in the mutual fund industry worldwide. Explicit indexing and closet indexing by active funds are associated with countries' regulatory and financial market environments. We find that actively managed funds are more active and charge...

This paper investigates what mutual fund managers learn from senior colleagues by focusing on managers managing multiple funds. I find that having a new senior colleague significantly increases a fund manager's revenues from other funds that she manages. To explore the sources of this increase...

This paper shows that low-expense index funds draw investor attention to a fund family, and the investors' subsequent incomplete search within funds in the family raises flows of actively managed funds in the same family by 10%. These spillover effects are more salient among retail investors and...

Using a sample of hedge funds and mutual funds, I examine two channels through which asset managers can contribute to systemic risk: the service channel when funds act as liquidity suppliers and the asset liquidation channel when funds act as liquidity demanders. Consistent with the latter...