The average alpha of mutual funds is an indication of whether it pays off to invest in actively managed funds. In this study we show that a substantial part of the variation in the average alpha can be explained by exogenous factors. The most important factors are the average expense ratio, the...

This paper examines the predictive power of investment managers' sentiment revealed in their letters to shareholders for their future performance, using closed-end funds (CEFs) as a laboratory. We find that pessimistic tone in managers' letters to shareholders predicts superior future...

Over the last decades passive investment products have continuously increased in importance. The efficiency of financial markets is often identified as the main reason for this development. We propose a theoretical framework which reverses the causality by showing that market efficiency might...

This study shows that mutual fund managers vary in their reliance on category-level information, relative to firm-specific information about assets. Moreover, fund performance decreases with managers' propensity to rely on categories. Fund managers display less skill in picking stocks which are...

We analyze mutual fund flow-performance relationship using a novel sample of Chinese mutual funds that trade in a volatile market environment. Consistent with existing literature, we find that the net flow to a fund is positively related to past fund performance. However, the positive...

We examine whether actively managed equity mutual funds trade on localised information events - syndicated loan covenant violations and changes in bank loan and entity ratings. Local investors achieve positive abnormal stock returns only around covenant violation periods rather than changes in...

This paper examines how the rise of passive investing affects active management. I develop a parsimonious model of passive and active investment in which greater passive investment accelerates investors' learning about active managers' skill. The model provides a rational explanation, namely the...

We develop an asset market participation model in which investors base their market entry decisions on the momentum, value and risk of the market. Despite our behavioral framework, the model’s fundamental steady state is characterized by standard present-value relations between expected future...

This study investigates speculative bubbles in the cryptocurrency market and factors affecting bubbles during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results indicate that each cryptocurrency covered in the study presented bubbles. Moreover, we found that explosive behavior in one currency leads to...