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Abstract:
In this paper we analyze whether good corporate governance leads to higher common stock returns and enhances firm value in Europe. Throughout this study we use Deminor Corporate Governance Ratings for companies included in the FTSE Eurotop 300. Following the approach of Gompers, Ishii and Metrick (2003) we build portfolios consisting of well-governed and poorly governed companies and compare their performance. We also examine the impact of corporate governance on firm valuation. Our results show a positive relationship between these variables and corporate governance. This relationship weakens substantially after adjusting for country differences. Finally, we analyze the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance, as approximated by Net-Profit-Margin (NPM) and Return-on-Equity (ROE). Surprisingly, and contrary to Gompers, Ishii and Metrick (2003), we find a negative relationship between governance standards and these earnings based performance ratios for which we discuss possible implications.

corporate governance, financial performance, shareholder value, firm value, asset pricing

Abstract:
This paper presents an overview of the European mutual fund industry and investigates mutual fund performance using a survivorship bias controlled sample of 506 funds from the five most important mutual fund countries. The latter is done using the Carhart (1997) 4-factor asset-pricing model. In addition we investigate whether European fund managers exhibit "hot hands", persistence in performance. Finally the influence of fund characteristics on risk-adjusted performance is considered. Our overall results suggest that European mutual funds, and especially small cap funds are able to add value, as indicated by their positive after cost alphas. If we add back management fees, four out of five countries exhibit significant out-performance at an aggregate level. Finally, we detect strong persistence in mean returns for funds investing in the UK. Our results deviate from most US studies that argue mutual funds under-perform the market by the amount of expenses they charge.

Abstract:
This paper presents an overview of the European mutual fund industry and investigates mutual fund performance using a survivorship bias controlled sample of 506 funds from the 5 most important mutual fund countries. The latter is done using the Carhart (1997) 4-factor asset-pricing model. In addition we investigate whether European fund managers exhibit "hot hands", persistence in performance. Finally the influence of fund characteristics on risk-adjusted performance is considered. Our overall results suggest that European mutual funds, and especially small cap funds are able to add value, as indicated by their positive after cost alphas. If we add back management fees, 4 out of 5 countries exhibit significant out-performance at an aggregate level. Finally, we detect strong persistence in mean returns for funds investing in the United Kingdom. Our results deviate from most US studies that argue mutual funds under-perform the market by the amount of expenses they charge.

Mutual funds, performance evaluation, portfolio management, style analysis

Abstract:
In this study we analyze the development and performance of the European mutual fund industry and compare it with the industry in the United States, using the traditional structure-conduct-performance (SCP) paradigm. We find that Europe is still lagging the American mutual fund industry when it comes to total asset size, average fund size, and market importance. Furthermore, it appears that a few large domestic fund groups dominate the mutual fund markets in the individual European countries. The performance of domestic equity funds is tested using a data set containing the main European countries and the United States. The most striking results of these performance tests are the relative poor performance of U.S. funds, compared to the European funds, and the out-performance of small cap mutual funds.

Mutual Funds, Europe

Abstract:
Using an international database containing 103 German, UK and US ethical mutual funds we review and extend previous research on ethical mutual fund performance. By applying a multi-factor Carhart (1997) model we solve the benchmark problem most prior ethical studies suffered from. After controlling for investment style, we find little evidence of significant differences in risk-adjusted returns between ethical and conventional funds for the 1990-2001 period. Introducing time-variation in betas however leads to a significant under-performance of domestic US funds and a significant out-performance of UK ethical funds, relative to their conventional peers. Finally, we differentiate previous results by documenting a learning effect. After a period of strong under-performance, older ethical funds finally are catching up, while younger funds continue to under-perform both the index and conventional peers.

Mutual Funds, Performance evaluation, Style Analysis, Ethical Investments,

Abstract:
Return-based style analysis investigates the exposure of mutual funds to a number of style indices. Because the style weights need to meet particular constraints, traditionally only point estimates of the style exposures have been reported. In this paper we include the entire asymptotic distribution of the style weights. These results are obtained by applying a combination of the Kuhn-Tucker optimization algorithm and standard bootstrapping. This allows us to infer confidence intervals for the style coefficients, and to carry out statistical tests on the parameters. Empirical tests on a sample of UK equity funds, demonstrate the usefulness of this extra information, in the light of the mutual fund misclassification phenomenon.

Mutual Funds, Style Analysis, Portfolio Management, Non-linear Optimization, Kuhn-Tucker, Parameter Uncertainty

Abstract:
In this paper we examine the performance of US equity funds (locals) versus UK equity funds (foreigners) also investing in the US equity market. Based on informational disadvantages one would expect the UK funds to under-perform the US funds, especially in the research-intensive small company market. After controlling for tax treatment, fund objectives, investment style and time-variation in betas, we do not find evidence for this. In the small company segment we even find a slight out-performance for UK funds compared to US funds. Finally we observe a home bias in the UK portfolios, which is partly attributable to UK funds investing in cross-listed stocks in the USA.

Abstract:
In this paper we examine the performance of local US equity funds versus foreign UK funds also investing in the US equity market. Based on informational disadvantages one would expect the foreign funds to under-perform the local funds, especially in the research intensive small company market. After controlling for tax treatment, fund objectives, investment style and time-variation in betas, we do not find evidence for this.

In the small company segment we even find a slight out-performance for foreign funds compared to local funds. In addition to that we observe a home bias in the UK portfolios, which could not be explained by currency effects or other non-US equity holdings.

Mutual Funds, Home Bias, Information asymmetry, Performance evaluation

Abstract:
This study provides new evidence on the performance and investment style of retail ethical funds in Australia. By applying a conditional multi-factor Carhart (1997) model, we solve the benchmark problem most prior ethical studies suffered from. After controlling for investment style, time-variation in betas, bond exposure and home bias, we observe no evidence of significant differences in risk-adjusted returns between ethical and conventional funds during the 1992-2003 period. This result however is sensitive to the chosen time period. During 1992-1996, domestic ethical funds under-perform their conventional counterparts significantly. During 1996-2003, the ethical funds match the performance of conventional funds more closely. This suggests there is a learning effect for the relatively young ethical investment industry.

Mutual funds, performance evaluation, style analysis, ethical investments

Abstract:
We study the drivers of executive compensation in the listed UK property sector. The United Kingdom provides an excellent opportunity to analyze executive compensation due to high transparency in the different components of executive compensation. We show that company size is the most important variable in explaining the level of executive compensation. We find that absolute and relative share performance significantly explains long-term compensation, that management style has a distinct influence on the level of executive compensation, and that using alternative monitoring mechanisms (institutional shareholders, debtholders, and outside directors) leads to higher levels of long-term incentives. We find only weak evidence of pay-performance sensitivity for both cash and long-term compensation. Executive shareholdings provide a much stronger link between pay and performance than does executive compensation.

Real Estate, Agency issues, Executive compensation

Abstract:
Using an international database containing 103 German, UK and US ethical mutual funds we review and extend previous research on ethical mutual fund performance. By applying a multi-factor Carhart (1997) model we overcome the benchmark problem most prior ethical studies suffered from. After controlling for investment style, we find no evidence of significant differences in risk-adjusted returns between ethical and conventional funds for the 1990-2001 period. Our results also suggest that ethical mutual funds underwent a catching up phase, before delivering financial returns similar to those of conventional mutual funds. Finally, our performance estimates are robust to the inclusion of ethical indexes, which, surprisingly, are not incrementally capable of explaining ethical mutual fund return variation.

Mutual Funds, Performance evaluation, Style Analysis, Ethical Investments

Abstract:
Using an international database containing 103 German, UK and US ethical mutual funds, we review and extend previous research on ethical mutual fund performance. By applying a multi-factor Carhart (1997) model we solve the benchmark problem most prior ethical studies suffered from. After controlling for investment style, we find little evidence of significant differences in risk-adjusted returns between ethical and conventional funds for the 1990-2001 period. Introducing time variation in betas however leads to a significant under-performance of domestic US funds and a significant out-performance of UK ethical funds, relative to their conventional peers. Finally, we differentiate previous results by documenting a learning effect. After a period of strong under-performance, older ethical funds finally are catching up, while younger funds continue to under-perform both the index and conventional peers.

Ethical mutual funds, investment style

Abstract:
In the present paper a comprehensive assessment of existing mutual fund performance models is presented. Using a survivor-bias free database of all US mutual funds, we explore the added value of introducing extra variables such as size, book-to-market, momentum and a bond index. In addition to that we evaluate the use of introducing time-variation in betas and alpha. The search for the most suitable model to measure mutual fund performance will be addressed along two lines. First, we are interested in the statistical significance of adding more factors to the single factor model. Second, we focus on the economic importance of more elaborate model specifications. The added value of the present study lies both in the step-wise process of identifying relevant factors, and the use of a rich US mutual fund database that was recently released by the Center for Research in Security Prices.

Mutual funds, performance evaluation, benchmarks, market efficiency

Abstract:
The present study investigates the performance of New Zealand mutual funds using a survivorship-bias controlled sample of 143 funds for the period of 1990-2003. Our overall results suggest that New Zealand mutual funds have not been able to provide out-performance. Alphas for equity funds, both domestic and international, are insignificantly different from zero, whereas balanced funds underperform significantly. There is no evidence of timing abilities by the fund managers. In the short term, significant evidence of return persistence for all funds is observed. This persistence, however, is driven by icy hands rather than hot hands. Finally, we find the risk-adjusted performance for equity funds to be positively related to fund size and expense ratio and negatively related to load charges.