Herding by Mutual Funds: Impact on Performance and Investors’ Response

Abstract

In this paper we investigate whether herding by actively managed equity funds affects their performances and flows over the 1980-2013 period. We show that during the herding quarter, on average, funds that trade with the herd benefit from this behavior. Although this does not directly translate into a positive association between the extent to which funds herd and their subsequent performance, we find that the funds that follow the herd earn negative abnormal returns whereas the ones that lead earn no abnormal returns. Our results also indicate that investors react adversely to follower funds while they are neutral towards the leader funds.

Keywords: Mutual funds; Herding; Fund flows

JEL Classification: JEL: G10; G20; G23