The Causal Effects of Proximity on Investment: Evidence from Flight Introductions

Abstract

We use direct flight introductions as an exogenous shock to the travel time between mutual funds and firms to estimate the causal effects of proximity on fund investment decisions and performance. We find that a fund invests significantly more in firms that become more proximate following the introduction of direct flights, and that these more proximate investments exhibit superior performance. Our findings are robust to the inclusion of a variety of fixed effects and potential confounders such as firm-level shocks, fund-level shocks, and time trends. Collectively, our results indicate that proximity enhances investors' ability to acquire value-relevant information about firms.

Keywords: Local Bias, Mutual Funds, Portfolio Choice

JEL Classification: G11, G23