We provide a rationale for window dressing where investors respond to conflicting signals of managerial ability inferred from a fund's performance and its disclosed portfolio holdings. We contend that window dressers take a risky bet on their performance during a reporting delay period, which...

This paper analyses investment strategies of three types of institutional investors – pension funds, life insurers and non-life insurers – over the period 1999-2005. We use balance sheet and cash flow data, including purchases and sales of equity, fixed income and real estate. We trace asset...

Actively managed mutual funds have distinct return distributions from their passive benchmarks and our theoretical analysis using tail-sensitive risk preferences suggests that active value and growth funds may serve to reduce downside risk and capture upside potential, respectively. Furthermore,...

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 study investigates whether the relation between macro-level fund flow and market returns varies between the retail and institutional fund management markets. We find evidence of a contemporaneous relation between flow and market return for retail funds and also find evidence to support the...

We propose and test a framework of private information acquisition and decision timing for asset allocators hiring outside investment managers. Using unique data on due diligence interactions between an allocator and 860 hedge funds, we find that the production of private information complements...

We study the equilibrium implications of a multi-asset economy in which asset managers are subject to different benchmarks, and demonstrate how heterogeneous benchmarking generates a mechanism through which fundamental shocks propagate across assets. Fluctuations in asset managers' capital...

This study analyzes how equity mutual fund investor behavior has changed over time, and the associated impact on investor returns. First, we find that from 1991-2016 investor return-chasing behavior declined and more recently disappeared, while investor flows have become more sensitive to...

Selecting managers on the basis of past performance is an intuitive strategy that seems trusted by investors. Indeed, many studies report a positive correlation between past fund returns and investor cash flows. Evidence also suggests that at least at shorter-term horizons investing with the top...