IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/38496.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

To Group or Not to Group? Evidence from Mutual Funds

Author

Listed:
  • patel, saurin
  • sarkissian, sergei

Abstract

The literature has conflicting reports regarding the impact of group decision making on performance. We first observe that in mutual fund studies this results from large discrepancies in reported managerial structures between CRSP and Morningstar databases reaching on average 20% per year. Then we show that with more superior Morningstar data team-managed funds exhibit higher risk-adjusted returns than single-managed funds. The performance spread is present across all fund categories, except aggressive funds, and is robust to the inclusion of fund- and manager-level controls. Across various managerial structures, the largest team-induced gains are reached among funds managed by three individuals. Furthermore, teams significantly improve fund performance when funds are located in financial centers, reflecting larger networking potential and/or better skills of people who reside in larger cities. This improvement is achieved in teams more homogeneous in age and education. In spite of higher returns however, team-managed funds are not riskier than single-managed funds in terms of market exposure or idiosyncratic volatility. Finally, team-managed funds trade less aggressively and are able to generate extra inflows for their funds. Thus, collective decision making is beneficial, but its scale depends on team size and diversity as well as its geographic location.

Suggested Citation

  • patel, saurin & sarkissian, sergei, 2012. "To Group or Not to Group? Evidence from Mutual Funds," MPRA Paper 38496, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:38496
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/38496/1/MPRA_paper_38496.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barry, Christopher B & Starks, Laura T, 1984. "Investment Management and Risk Sharing with Multiple Managers," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(2), pages 477-491, June.
    2. Renée Adams & Daniel Ferreira, 2010. "Moderation in Groups: Evidence from Betting on Ice Break-ups in Alaska," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 77(3), pages 882-913.
    3. Sah, Raaj Kumar & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1986. "The Architecture of Economic Systems: Hierarchies and Polyarchies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(4), pages 716-727, September.
    4. Glaeser, Edward L., 1999. "Learning in Cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 254-277, September.
    5. Erik R. Sirri & Peter Tufano, 1998. "Costly Search and Mutual Fund Flows," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 53(5), pages 1589-1622, October.
    6. Prather, Larry J. & Middleton, Karen L., 2002. "Are N+1 heads better than one?: The case of mutual fund managers," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 103-120, January.
    7. David J. Cooper & John H. Kagel, 2005. "Are Two Heads Better Than One? Team versus Individual Play in Signaling Games," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(3), pages 477-509, June.
    8. Bengt Holmstrom, 1982. "Moral Hazard in Teams," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 13(2), pages 324-340, Autumn.
    9. Alchian, Armen A & Demsetz, Harold, 1972. "Production , Information Costs, and Economic Organization," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(5), pages 777-795, December.
    10. Jeremy C. Stein, 2002. "Information Production and Capital Allocation: Decentralized versus Hierarchical Firms," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(5), pages 1891-1921, October.
    11. Raaj K. Sah & Joseph E. Stiglitz, 1991. "The Quality of Managers in Centralized Versus Decentralized Organizations," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(1), pages 289-295.
    12. Sharpe, W F, 1981. "Decentralized Investment Management," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 36(2), pages 217-234, May.
    13. Alexander Kempf & Stefan Ruenzi, 2008. "Tournaments in Mutual-Fund Families," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(2), pages 1013-1036, April.
    14. Nalbantian, Haig R & Schotter, Andrew, 1997. "Productivity under Group Incentives: An Experimental Study," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(3), pages 314-341, June.
    15. Massa, Massimo & Reuter, Jonathan & Zitzewitz, Eric, 2010. "When should firms share credit with employees? Evidence from anonymously managed mutual funds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(3), pages 400-424, March.
    16. Eric Rasmusen, 1987. "Moral Hazard in Risk-Averse Teams," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 18(3), pages 428-435, Autumn.
    17. Maddala, G S & Rao, A S, 1973. "Tests for Serial Correlation in Regression Models with Lagged Dependent Variables and Serially Correlated Errors," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 41(4), pages 761-774, July.
    18. Bone, John & Hey, John & Suckling, John, 1999. "Are Groups More (or Less) Consistent Than Individuals?," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 63-81, April.
    19. Grubb, David & Symons, James, 1987. "Bias in Regressions With a Lagged Dependent Variable," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(3), pages 371-386, June.
    20. Elton, Edwin J, et al, 1993. "Efficiency with Costly Information: A Reinterpretation of Evidence from Managed Portfolios," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 6(1), pages 1-22.
    21. Tom Nohel & Z. Jay Wang & Lu Zheng, 2010. "Side-by-Side Management of Hedge Funds and Mutual Funds," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(6), pages 2342-2373, June.
    22. Prachi Deuskar, 2011. "The Good or the Bad? Which Mutual Fund Managers Join Hedge Funds?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(9), pages 3008-3024.
    23. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    24. Brad M. Barber & Chip Heath & Terrance Odean, 2003. "Good Reasons Sell: Reason-Based Choice Among Group and Individual Investors in the Stock Market," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(12), pages 1636-1652, December.
    25. Ferson, Wayne E & Schadt, Rudi W, 1996. "Measuring Fund Strategy and Performance in Changing Economic Conditions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(2), pages 425-461, June.
    26. Joseph Chen & Harrison Hong & Ming Huang & Jeffrey D. Kubik, 2004. "Does Fund Size Erode Mutual Fund Performance? The Role of Liquidity and Organization," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(5), pages 1276-1302, December.
    27. Barton H. Hamilton & Jack A. Nickerson & Hideo Owan, 2003. "Team Incentives and Worker Heterogeneity: An Empirical Analysis of the Impact of Teams on Productivity and Participation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(3), pages 465-497, June.
    28. Cici, Gjergji, 2011. "The relation of the disposition effect to mutual fund trades and performance," CFR Working Papers 11-05, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    29. Gary Bornstein & Ilan Yaniv, 1998. "Individual and Group Behavior in the Ultimatum Game: Are Groups More “Rational” Players?," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 1(1), pages 101-108, June.
    30. Joshua D. Coval & Tobias J. Moskowitz, 2001. "The Geography of Investment: Informed Trading and Asset Prices," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 109(4), pages 811-841, August.
    31. Edwin J. Elton & Martin J. Gruber & Christopher R. Blake, 2001. "A First Look at the Accuracy of the CRSP Mutual Fund Database and a Comparison of the CRSP and Morningstar Mutual Fund Databases," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(6), pages 2415-2430, December.
    32. Attila Ambrus & Ben Greiner & Parag Pathak, 2009. "Group Versus Individual Decision-Making: Is there a shift?," Economics Working Papers 0091, Institute for Advanced Study, School of Social Science.
    33. Christoffersen, Susan E.K. & Sarkissian, Sergei, 2009. "City size and fund performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 252-275, May.
    34. Blinder, Alan S & Morgan, John, 2005. "Are Two Heads Better than One? Monetary Policy by Committee," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 37(5), pages 789-811, October.
    35. Kerr, Norbert L., 1992. "Group decision making at a multialternative task: Extremity, interfaction distance, pluralities, and issue importance," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 64-95, June.
    36. Joshua M. Pollet & Mungo Wilson, 2008. "How Does Size Affect Mutual Fund Behavior?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(6), pages 2941-2969, December.
    37. Karagiannidis, Iordanis, 2010. "Management team structure and mutual fund performance," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 197-211, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cici, Gjergji & Rosenfeld, Claire, 2016. "A study of analyst-run mutual funds: The abilities and roles of buy-side analysts," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 8-29.
    2. Agarwal, Vikas & Ma, Linlin, 2013. "Managerial multitasking in the mutual fund industry," CFR Working Papers 13-10, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Galkiewicz, Dominika Paula, 2014. "Manager Characteristics and Credit Derivative Use by U.S. Corporate Bond Funds," Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems 495, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich.
    2. Dominika Paula Gałkiewicz, 2015. "Manager Characteristics and Credit Derivative Use by U.S. Corporate Bond Funds," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2015-018, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.
    3. Galkiewicz, Dominika Paula, 2014. "Manager Characteristics and Credit Derivative Use by U.S. Corporate Bond Funds," Discussion Papers in Economics 24445, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    4. Michaela Bär & Alexander Kempf & Stefan Ruenzi, 2010. "Is a Team Different from the Sum of its Parts? Evidence from Mutual Fund Managers," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 15(2), pages 359-396.
    5. Dass, Nishant & Nanda, Vikram & Wang, Qinghai, 2013. "Allocation of decision rights and the investment strategy of mutual funds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(1), pages 254-277.
    6. Chen, Jean Jinghan & Xie, Li & Zhou, Si, 2020. "Managerial multi-tasking, Team diversity, and mutual fund performance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    7. Cuthbertson, Keith & Nitzsche, Dirk & O'Sullivan, Niall, 2016. "A review of behavioural and management effects in mutual fund performance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 162-176.
    8. Karagiannidis, Iordanis, 2010. "Management team structure and mutual fund performance," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 197-211, April.
    9. Mamatzakis, Emmanuel & Xu, Bingrun, 2016. "Managerial attributes and equity mutual fund performance: evidence from china," MPRA Paper 76139, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Miguel A. Ferreira & Aneel Keswani & António F. Miguel & Sofia B. Ramos, 2013. "The Determinants of Mutual Fund Performance: A Cross-Country Study," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 17(2), pages 483-525.
    11. Chia-Ying Chan & Christine W. Lai & Liang-Chung Lee, 2017. "Strategic Choice of Risk: Evidence from Mutual Fund Families," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 51(1), pages 125-163, February.
    12. Kugler, Tamar & Kausel, E.E. & Kocher, Martin G., 2012. "Are groups more rational than individuals? A review of interactive decision making in groups," Munich Reprints in Economics 18215, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    13. Agarwal, Vikas & Ma, Linlin & Mullally, Kevin, 2015. "Managerial multitasking in the mutual fund industry," CFR Working Papers 13-10 [rev.], University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    14. Bessler, Wolfgang & Blake, David & Lückoff, Peter & Tonks, Ian, 2010. "Why does mutual fund performance not persist? The impact and interaction of fund flows and manager changes," MPRA Paper 34185, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Elton, Edwin J. & Gruber, Martin J., 2013. "Mutual Funds," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1011-1061, Elsevier.
    16. Karagiannidis, Iordanis, 2012. "The effect of management team characteristics on risk-taking and style extremity of mutual fund portfolios," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 153-158.
    17. Jennifer Huang & Clemens Sialm & Hanjiang Zhang, 2011. "Risk Shifting and Mutual Fund Performance," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(8), pages 2575-2616.
    18. Iordanis Karagiannidis, 2012. "The effect of management team characteristics on risk‐taking and style extremity of mutual fund portfolios," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(3), pages 153-158, September.
    19. Del Guercio, Diane & Genç, Egemen & Tran, Hai, 2018. "Playing favorites: Conflicts of interest in mutual fund management," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(3), pages 535-557.
    20. Kocher, Martin & Strau[ss], Sabine & Sutter, Matthias, 2006. "Individual or team decision-making--Causes and consequences of self-selection," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 259-270, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Knowledge spillover; Management structure; Performance evaluation; Team diversity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:38496. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.