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Corporate bond mutual funds and asset fire sales

Author

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  • Choi, Jaewon
  • Hoseinzade, Saeid
  • Shin, Sean Seunghun
  • Tehranian, Hassan

Abstract

Corporate bond mutual funds engage in liquidity transformation, raising concerns among academics and policy makers that large redemptions will lead to asset fire sales. We find little evidence, however, that bond fund redemptions drive fire sale price pressure after controlling for time-varying issuer-level information that could also affect funds’ trading decisions, using a novel identification strategy that exploits same-issuer bonds held by funds with differing outflows. We attribute our findings, which contrast with those found for equity funds, to funds’ liquidity management strategies. Bond funds maintain significant liquidity cushions and selectively trade liquid assets, allowing them to absorb investor redemption risk without excessively liquidating corporate bonds, even during the 2008 financial crisis.

Suggested Citation

  • Choi, Jaewon & Hoseinzade, Saeid & Shin, Sean Seunghun & Tehranian, Hassan, 2020. "Corporate bond mutual funds and asset fire sales," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(2), pages 432-457.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfinec:v:138:y:2020:i:2:p:432-457
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2020.05.006
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    Cited by:

    1. Thierry Roncalli & Fatma Karray-Meziou & Franc{c}ois Pan & Margaux Regnault, 2021. "Liquidity Stress Testing in Asset Management -- Part 1. Modeling the Liability Liquidity Risk," Papers 2101.02110, arXiv.org.
    2. Barbu, Alexandru & Fricke, Christoph & ,, 2020. "Procyclical Asset Management and Bond Risk Premia," CEPR Discussion Papers 15123, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Li, Li & Huang, Shiyang & Lou, Dong & Shi, Jiahong, 2021. "Why don't most mutual funds short sell?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118854, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Milan Szabo, 2022. "Meeting Investor Outflows in Czech Bond and Equity Funds: Horizontal or Vertical?," Working Papers 2022/6, Czech National Bank.
    5. Choi, Jaewon & Kronlund, Mathias & Oh, Ji Yeol Jimmy, 2022. "Sitting bucks: Stale pricing in fixed income funds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 296-317.
    6. Zhang, Ning & Zhang, Yue & Zong, Zhe, 2023. "Fund ESG performance and downside risk: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    7. Zhu, Qifei, 2021. "Capital supply and corporate bond issuances: Evidence from mutual fund flows," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 551-572.
    8. Milan Szabo, 2022. "Meeting investor outflows in Czech bond and equity funds: horizontal or vertical?," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 49(4), pages 1123-1151, November.
    9. Koo, Minjae & Muslu, Volkan, 2023. "Fund Flows and Asset Valuations of Bond Mutual Funds: Effect of Side-by-Side Management," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    10. Islam, Mohd. Anisul, 2021. "Investor sentiment in the equity market and investments in corporate-bond funds," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    11. Jiang, Hao & Li, Yi & Sun, Zheng & Wang, Ashley, 2022. "Does mutual fund illiquidity introduce fragility into asset prices? Evidence from the corporate bond market," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(1), pages 277-302.
    12. Dekker, Lennart & Molestina Vivar, Luis & Wedow, Michael & Weistroffer, Christian, 2023. "Liquidity buffers and open-end investment funds: containing outflows and reducing fire sales," Working Paper Series 2825, European Central Bank.
    13. Axelle Arquié, 2023. "Fire Sales and Bank Runs in the Presence of a Saving Allocation by Depositors," Working Papers 2023-09, CEPII research center.
    14. Cici, Gjergji & Zhang, Pei (Alex), 2021. "On the valuation skills of corporate bond mutual funds," CFR Working Papers 21-05, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    15. Ferriani, Fabrizio, 2021. "From taper tantrum to Covid-19: Portfolio flows to emerging markets in periods of stress," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    16. Mählmann, Thomas, 2022. "Negative externalities of mutual fund instability: Evidence from leveraged loan funds," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    17. Wang, Hu & Li, Shouwei & Ma, Yuyin & Jiang, Shuyang, 2022. "Does investor sentiment affect fund crashes? Evidence from Chinese open-end funds," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    18. Dang, Thuy Duong & Hollstein, Fabian & Prokopczuk, Marcel, 2022. "How do corporate bond investors measure performance? Evidence from mutual fund flows," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    19. Park, Heungju & Sohn, Sungbin, 2021. "Flight to quality and implicit guarantee: Evidence from Chinese trust products," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 399-419.
    20. Elkamhi, Redouane & Nozawa, Yoshio, 2022. "Fire-sale risk in the leveraged loan market," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(3), pages 1120-1147.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corporate bond mutual funds; Liquidity management; Asset fire sales;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors

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