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Abstract:
We show that multifactor performance estimates for mutual funds suffer from systematic biases, and argue that these biases are a result of miscalculating the factor premiums. Because the factor proxies are based on hypothetical stock portfolios and do not incorporate transaction costs, trade impact, and trading restrictions, the factor premiums are either over- or underestimated. We argue that factor proxies based on mutual fund returns rather than stock returns provide better benchmarks to evaluate professional money managers.

mutual fund performance, model misspecification, value premium, momentum premium

Abstract:
We show that multifactor performance estimates for mutual funds suffer from systematic biases, and argue that these biases are a result of miscalculating the factor premiums. Because the factor proxies are based on hypothetical stock portfolios and do not incorporate transaction costs, trade impact, and trading restrictions, the factor premiums are either over- or underestimated. We argue that factor proxies based on mutual fund returns rather than stock returns provide better benchmarks to evaluate professional money managers.

mutual fund performance, model misspecification, value premium, momentum premium

Abstract:
We investigate persistence in the relative performance of 3,549 bond mutual funds from 1990 to 2003. We show that bond funds that display strong (weak) performance over a past period continue to do so in future periods. The out-of-sample difference in risk-adjusted return between the top and bottom decile of funds ranked on past alpha exceeds 3.5 percent per year. We demonstrate that a strategy based on past fund returns earns an economically and statistically significant abnormal return, suggesting that bond fund investors can exploit the observed persistence. Our results are robust to a wide range of model specifications and bootstrapped test statistics.

bond mutual funds, performance persistence, active management

Abstract:
We investigate persistence in the relative performance of 3,549 bond mutual funds from 1990 to 2003. We show that bond funds that display strong (weak) performance over a past period continue to do so in future periods. The out-of-sample difference in risk-adjusted return between the top and bottom decile of funds ranked on past alpha exceeds 3.5 percent per year. We demonstrate that a strategy based on past fund returns earns an economically and statistically significant abnormal return, suggesting that bond fund investors can exploit the observed persistence. Our results are robust to a wide range of model specifications and bootstrapped test statistics.

bond mutual funds, performance persistence, active management

Abstract:
This paper examines higher-moment market risks in the cross-section of hedge fund returns to make several contributions. First, it is shown that hedge funds, but not mutual funds, are substantially exposed to volatility, skewness, and kurtosis risks. We find significant cross-sectional variation in the intensity of higher-moment exposures across hedge fund styles and across hedge funds within a particular style, suggesting potential for neutralizing higher-moment risks. Corroborating this result, when funds of hedge funds are investigated as a separate investment category they do not show aggressive loading on higher-moment risks. Second, we provide evidence on economically significant premiums being embedded in hedge fund returns on account of their exposures to higher-moment risks. Third, we uncover a set of higher-moment factors that are not strongly associated with factors in benchmark models that are currently used for evaluating hedge fund performance. Finally, the addition of higher-moment factors to benchmark models can better explain the behavior of hedge fund returns. Bearing on issues of practical consequence, benchmark models augmented with higher-moment factors can considerably alter the hedge funds' alpha-based rankings.

volatility risk, skewness risk, kurtosis risk, higher moments, exposures, hedge funds, alphas

Abstract:
This paper investigates the presence of spillover effects of marketing in mutual fund families. We find that funds with high marketing expenses generate spillovers, and enhance cash inflows to family members with low marketing expenses. In particular, low-marketing funds that are operated by a family with high marketing expenses have substantially larger inflows after positive returns than otherwise similar funds that are operated by a family with low marketing expenses, while they have smaller outflows after negative returns. One way to interpret the spillovers is that they are a by-product of individual fund marketing whereby the entire family is made more visible to investors. An alternative explanation of this observation is that funds with low marketing expenses are directly subsidized by family members with high marketing expenses. We develop and perform a set of tests to evaluate these two alternative hypotheses. The results of all tests support the subsidization hypothesis, and suggest that at least part of the spillovers can be attributed to favoritism. These results suggest that conflicts of interest between investors and fund families have been exacerbated by competition in the mutual fund industry.

Mutual fund flows, marketing, cross-subsidization, favoritism

Abstract:
New Insights into Mutual Funds is a bundle of four empirical studies on mutual funds. In the first two papers, we investigate persistence in risk-adjusted fund returns. We show that the returns of both equity and bond mutual funds are persistent. Funds that display strong (weak) performance over a past period continue to do so in future periods. More importantly, we demonstrate that some fund managers are able to outperform a strategy that invests in passive indexes for a short period of time. These results add new insights to long-running debates on the benefits of actively managed funds vis-à-vis passive portfolios. In the third paper, we test the cross-sectional explanatory power of multi-factor models to explain mutual fund returns. We find that performance estimates resulting from these models are biased because the factor proxies do not incorporate transaction costs and trading restrictions. We suggest that factor proxies based on mutual fund returns rather than stock returns provide better benchmarks to evaluate professional money managers. Finally, in the fourth paper we investigate the impact of fund marketing on investor flows to other funds in the family. We find that high-marketing funds generate spillovers, and enhance cash inflows to low-marketing funds in the family. An explanation of this observation is that funds with low marketing expenses are directly subsidized by family members with high marketing expenses. Our results indicate that at least part of the spillovers can be attributed to favoritism. These findings suggest that conflicts of interest between investors and fund families have been exacerbated by competition in the mutual fund industry.

mutual funds, bond funds, performance evaluation, performance persistence, benchmark misspecification, marketing, cross-subsidization, favoritism

Abstract:
Using monthly return data of more than 6400 US equity mutual funds we investigate short-run performance persistence over the period 1984-2003. We sort funds into rank portfolios based on past performance, and evaluate the portfolios' out-of-sample performance. To cope with short ranking periods, we employ an empirical Bayes approach to measure past performance more efficiently. Our main finding is that when funds are sorted into decile portfolios based on 12-month ranking periods, the top decile of funds earns a statistically significant, abnormal return of 0.26 percent per month. This effect persists beyond load fees, and is mainly concentrated in relatively young, small cap/growth funds.

Mutual funds, Performance persistence, Bayesian analysis

Abstract:
Using monthly return data of more than 6,400 US equity mutual funds we investigate short-run performance persistence over the period 1984-2003. We sort funds into rank portfolios based on past performance, and evaluate the portfolios' out-of-sample performance. To cope with short ranking periods, we employ an empirical Bayes approach to measure past performance more efficiently. Our main finding is that when funds are sorted into decile portfolios based on 12-month ranking periods, the top decile of funds earns a statistically significant, abnormal return of 0.26 percent per month. This effect persists beyond load fees, and is mainly concentrated in relatively young, small cap/growth funds.

Mutual funds, performance persistence, Bayesian analysis

Abstract:
REITs exhibit a large and prevalent momentum effect that is not captured by conventional factor models. We show that this REIT momentum anomaly hampers proper judgments about the active management of REIT portfolios. By contrast, a REIT momentum factor provides incremental explanatory power to performance attribution models for REIT portfolios. Using this factor, we find that REIT momentum explains a great deal of the abnormal returns that actively managed REIT mutual funds earn in aggregate according to earlier related studies. Accounting for exposure to REIT momentum also materially influences cross-sectional comparisons of the performance of REIT mutual funds. Our results have important implications for performance evaluation, alpha-beta separation, and manager selection and compensation.

momentum, performance, mutual funds, REITs

Abstract:
To analyze persistence in mutual fund performance, it is common practice to construct portfolios of funds based on past fund returns. Using a large sample of equity and bond funds, we show that this approach introduces dynamic exposures to common stock and bond risk factors. Correcting for risk dynamics substantially reduces the level of persistence in risk-adjusted performance and drives out the explanatory power of stock and bond momentum factors.

mutual funds, performance persistence, momentum, time-varying risk exposures

Abstract:
We document persistence in the performance of emerging market equity funds and find some notable differences compared to US funds. First, the contribution of winner funds to the return spread between winner and losers is substantially larger for emerging market funds. Second, only a small portion of the return spread between winners and losers can be attributed to momentum effects in emerging markets. Third, while US winner funds have been documented to underperform benchmark factors correcting for size, value and momentum effects by the magnitude of their expenses, winner funds in emerging markets generate returns that are sufficiently large enough to cover their expenses. Overall, our findings suggest that emerging market funds generally display better performance than US funds.

mutual funds, emerging markets, performance persistence, momentum

Abstract:
This paper investigates the relation between portfolio concentration and the performance of global equity funds. Concentrated funds with higher levels of tracking error display better performance than their more broadly diversified counterparts. We show that the observed relation between portfolio concentration and performance is mostly driven by the breadth of the underlying fund strategies; not just by fund managers’ willingness to take big bets. Our results indicate that when investors strive to select the best performing funds, they should not only consider fund managers’ tracking error levels. It is of greater importance that they take into account the extent to which fund managers carefully allocate their risk budget across multiple investment strategies and have concentrated holdings in multiple market segments simultaneously.

global fund performance, portfolio concentration, active management

Abstract:
European index funds and exchange-traded funds underperform by 50 to 150 basis points per annum compared to gross total return benchmark indexes. This underperformance is significantly larger than the shortfall reported for U.S. passive funds and also larger than one would expect based on the funds’ reported expenses. We show that the underperformance can be attributed to European funds suffering a significant performance drag as a result of dividend withholding taxes. Dividend withholding taxes and fund expenses have a comparable impact on fund performance and jointly explain the entire performance shortfall. In addition, dividend taxes explain performance differences between funds tracking different benchmark indexes and are an important determinant for time variation in fund performance. Our results imply that when
mutual funds are confronted with dividend withholding taxes, it is crucial to account for this factor when evaluating fund performance.

passive investing, index fund, ETF, dividend taxes, performance evaluation

Abstract:
This paper finds that common risk factors significantly underestimate the returns on corporate bonds with a short maturity. A substantial portion of short-term corporate bond returns is independent of risk premiums associated with market risk, term and default risk, yield curve dynamics, liquidity risk and premiums associated with macro-economic variables. Comparable evidence of the short-term corporate bond anomaly also shows up in portfolios of corporate bond mutual funds, indicating that the anomaly withstands important practical issues, such as short-selling restrictions, transaction costs, and illiquidity.

asset pricing, corporate bond returns, factor models, mutual funds

Abstract:
REITs exhibit a strong and prevalent momentum effect that is not captured by conventional factor models. This REIT momentum anomaly hampers proper judgments about the performance of actively managed REIT portfolios. In contrast, a REIT momentum factor adds incremental explanatory power to performance attribution models for REIT portfolios. Using this factor, this study finds that REIT momentum explains a great deal of the abnormal returns that actively managed REIT mutual funds earn in aggregate. Accounting for exposure to REIT momentum also materially influences cross-sectional comparisons of the performances of REIT mutual funds. This study has important implications for performance evaluation, alpha-beta separation, and manager selection and compensation.

Alternative Investments, Real Estate, Equity Investments, Fundamental Analysis and Valuation Models, Performance Measurement and Evaluation, Performance Attribution, Portfolio Management, Equity Strategies

Abstract:
REITs exhibit a large and prevalent momentum effect that is not captured by conventional factor models. We show that this REIT momentum anomaly hampers proper judgments about the active management of REIT portfolios. By contrast, a REIT momentum factor and the factors from the Fama and French (1993) model jointly do a good job of describing the performance of REIT portfolios. Using this model, we find that REIT momentum explains a great deal of the abnormal returns that actively managed REIT mutual funds earn in aggregate according to earlier related studies. Accounting for exposure to REIT momentum also materially influences cross-sectional comparisons of the performance of REIT mutual funds.

momentum, performance, mutual funds, REITs