Do Investors Pay Less Attention to Women (Fund Managers)?
73 Pages Posted: 21 Sep 2021 Last revised: 6 Jul 2022
Date Written: July 6, 2022
Abstract
We document a gender-based attention effect in the sensitivity of mutual fund flows to fund performance using individual-level fund data from a fintech platform in China. Investors increase (decrease) flows to funds following positive and strong (negative and weak) prior- month performance. However, although there is no significant difference in the performance of male and female managers, the sensitivity effect significantly weakens if the fund manager is female. The effect persists after controlling for managerial characteristics and fund objectives, as well as individual investor fixed effects. Simply put, investors react less to the performance of female fund managers.
Keywords: Mutual funds, flow-performance relationship, attention bias, gender bias, fintech, inclusive finance, behavioral finance, psychology, Natural Language Processing
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