Are Some Mutual Funds Managers Better than Others? Cross-Sectional Patterns in Behavior and Performance

33 Pages Posted: 16 Jul 2000 Last revised: 30 Dec 2022

See all articles by Judith A. Chevalier

Judith A. Chevalier

Yale School of Management; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Glenn Ellison

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Date Written: December 1996

Abstract

In this paper we explore cross-sectional differences in the behavior and performance of mutual fund managers. In our simplest regression of a fund's market excess return on characteristics of its manager we find that younger managers earn much higher returns than older managers and that managers who attended colleges with higher average SAT scores earn much higher returns than do managers from less selective institutions. These differences appear to derive both from systematic differences in expense ratios and risk-taking behavior and from additional systematic differences in performance managers from higher SAT schools have higher risk-adjusted excess returns. Managers with the paper also presents a preliminary look at the labor market for mutual fund managers. Our data suggest that managerial turnover is more performance sensitive for younger managers

Suggested Citation

Chevalier, Judith A. and Ellison, Glenn David, Are Some Mutual Funds Managers Better than Others? Cross-Sectional Patterns in Behavior and Performance (December 1996). NBER Working Paper No. w5852, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=225637

Judith A. Chevalier (Contact Author)

Yale School of Management ( email )

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Glenn David Ellison

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