IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/finrev/v58y2023i4p765-782.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring the performance of US international bond mutual funds

Author

Listed:
  • Jonathan Fletcher
  • Elizabeth Littlejohn
  • Andrew Marshall

Abstract

We use a Bayesian regime switching approach to examine the performance enhancement of adding US international bond funds to a domestic bond universe pre and post the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) during January 1999 and May 2022. We find that the international bond funds provide large significant performance enhancement pre the GFC, with an increase in Certainty Equivalent Return (CER) performance of 0.595% (monthly), but none post the GFC. The performance enhancement pre GFC is driven by Large Emerging Market bond funds, which is likely fueled by a substantial drop in the Emerging Market central bank policy rates pre GFC.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Fletcher & Elizabeth Littlejohn & Andrew Marshall, 2023. "Exploring the performance of US international bond mutual funds," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 58(4), pages 765-782, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:finrev:v:58:y:2023:i:4:p:765-782
    DOI: 10.1111/fire.12355
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/fire.12355
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/fire.12355?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Blake, Christopher R & Elton, Edwin J & Gruber, Martin J, 1993. "The Performance of Bond Mutual Funds," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 66(3), pages 370-403, July.
    2. Tu, Jun & Zhou, Guofu, 2011. "Markowitz meets Talmud: A combination of sophisticated and naive diversification strategies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 204-215, January.
    3. Andrew Ang & Allan Timmermann, 2012. "Regime Changes and Financial Markets," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 313-337, October.
    4. Ehling, Paul & Ramos, Sofia B., 2006. "Geographic versus industry diversification: Constraints matter," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(4-5), pages 396-416, October.
    5. Liu, Edith X., 2016. "Portfolio Diversification and International Corporate Bonds," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 51(3), pages 959-983, June.
    6. Paul Karehnke & Frans de Roon, 2020. "Spanning Tests for Assets with Option-Like Payoffs: The Case of Hedge Funds," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(12), pages 5969-5989, December.
    7. Kandel, Shmuel & McCulloch, Robert & Stambaugh, Robert F, 1995. "Bayesian Inference and Portfolio Efficiency," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 8(1), pages 1-53.
    8. Michael A. Goldstein & Joseph McCarthy & Alexei G. Orlov, 2019. "The Core, Periphery, and Beyond: Stock Market Comovements among EU and Non‐EU Countries," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 54(1), pages 5-56, February.
    9. Guidolin, Massimo & Orlov, Alexei G. & Pedio, Manuela, 2017. "The impact of monetary policy on corporate bonds under regime shifts," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 176-202.
    10. Best, Michael J. & Grauer, Robert R., 1990. "The efficient set mathematics when mean-variance problems are subject to general linear constraints," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 105-120, May.
    11. Levy, Haim & Sarnat, Marshall, 1970. "International Diversification of Investment Portfolios," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(4), pages 668-675, September.
    12. Kan, Raymond & Zhou, Guofu, 2007. "Optimal Portfolio Choice with Parameter Uncertainty," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 42(3), pages 621-656, September.
    13. Chen Gu & Ann Marie Hibbert, 2021. "Expectations and financial markets: Lessons from Brexit," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 56(2), pages 279-299, May.
    14. Mark M. Carhart & Jennifer N. Carpenter & Anthony W. Lynch & David K. Musto, 2002. "Mutual Fund Survivorship," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(5), pages 1439-1463.
    15. Campbell R. Harvey, 2017. "Presidential Address: The Scientific Outlook in Financial Economics," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(4), pages 1399-1440, August.
    16. Mats Hansson & Eva Liljeblom & Anders Loflund, 2009. "International bond diversification strategies: the impact of currency, country, and credit risk," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(5-6), pages 555-583.
    17. Richard B. Evans, 2010. "Mutual Fund Incubation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(4), pages 1581-1611, August.
    18. Marie Brière & Valérie Mignon & Kim Oosterlinck & Ariane Szafarz, 2016. "Towards greater diversification in central bank reserves," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 17(4), pages 295-312, July.
    19. André de Souza & Anthony W. Lynch, 2012. "Does Mutual Fund Performance Vary over the Business Cycle?," NBER Working Papers 18137, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Luttmer, Erzo G J, 1996. "Asset Pricing in Economies with Frictions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(6), pages 1439-1467, November.
    21. Wang, Zhenyu, 1998. "Efficiency loss and constraints on portfolio holdings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 359-375, June.
    22. Bekaert, Geert & De Santis, Roberto A., 2021. "Risk and return in international corporate bond markets," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    23. Raymond Kan & Daniel R. Smith, 2008. "The Distribution of the Sample Minimum-Variance Frontier," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(7), pages 1364-1380, July.
    24. Moneta, Fabio, 2015. "Measuring bond mutual fund performance with portfolio characteristics," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 223-242.
    25. Kewei Hou & Chen Xue & Lu Zhang, 2020. "Replicating Anomalies," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(5), pages 2019-2133.
    26. Glen, Jack & Jorion, Philippe, 1993. "Currency Hedging for International Portfolios," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(5), pages 1865-1886, December.
    27. Chen, Yong & Ferson, Wayne & Peters, Helen, 2010. "Measuring the timing ability and performance of bond mutual funds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 72-89, October.
    28. Elton, Edwin J & Gruber, Martin J & Blake, Christopher R, 1995. "Fundamental Economic Variables, Expected Returns, and Bond Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(4), pages 1229-1256, September.
    29. Wayne Ferson & Tyler R. Henry & Darren J. Kisgen, 2006. "Evaluating Government Bond Fund Performance with Stochastic Discount Factors," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(2), pages 423-455.
    30. Timothy B. Riley, 2021. "Portfolios of actively managed mutual funds," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 56(2), pages 205-230, May.
    31. Cheol S. Eun & Bruce G. Resnick, 1994. "International Diversification of Investment Portfolios: U.S. and Japanese Perspectives," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(1), pages 140-161, January.
    32. Brown, Stephen J, et al, 1992. "Survivorship Bias in Performance Studies," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 5(4), pages 553-580.
    33. Jonathan Fletcher & Krishna Paudyal & Timbul Santoso, 2019. "Exploring the benefits of international government bond portfolio diversification strategies," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 1-15, January.
    34. Bekaert, Geert & Urias, Michael S, 1996. "Diversification, Integration and Emerging Market Closed-End Funds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(3), pages 835-869, July.
    35. Guidolin, Massimo & Orlov, Alexei G. & Pedio, Manuela, 2014. "Unconventional monetary policies and the corporate bond market," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 203-212.
    36. Li, Kai & Sarkar, Asani & Wang, Zhenyu, 2003. "Diversification benefits of emerging markets subject to portfolio constraints," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 10(1-2), pages 57-80, February.
    37. Juhani T. Linnainmaa, 2013. "Reverse Survivorship Bias," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(3), pages 789-813, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Fletcher, Jonathan, 2021. "International equity U.S. mutual funds and diversification benefits," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 246-257.
    2. Fletcher, Jonathan, 2018. "An empirical examination of the diversification benefits of U.K. international equity closed-end funds," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 23-34.
    3. Jonathan Fletcher, 2022. "Exploring the diversification benefits of US international equity closed-end funds," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 36(3), pages 297-320, September.
    4. 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).
    5. Li, Kai & Sarkar, Asani & Wang, Zhenyu, 2003. "Diversification benefits of emerging markets subject to portfolio constraints," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 10(1-2), pages 57-80, February.
    6. Qin, Nan & Wang, Ying, 2021. "Does portfolio concentration affect performance? Evidence from corporate bond mutual funds," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    7. Aragon, George O. & Li, Lei & Qian, Jun ‘QJ’, 2019. "The use of credit default swaps by bond mutual funds: Liquidity provision and counterparty risk," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(1), pages 168-185.
    8. Jonathan Fletcher, 2018. "An Examination of the Benefits of Factor Investing in U.K. Stock Returns," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 10(4), pages 154-170, April.
    9. Fletcher, Jonathan, 2021. "Evaluating the performance of U.S. international equity closed-end funds," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    10. Martin Rohleder & Hendrik Scholz & Marco Wilkens, 2018. "Success and failure on the corporate bond fund market," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(6), pages 429-443, October.
    11. Yong Chen & Nan Qin, 2017. "The Behavior of Investor Flows in Corporate Bond Mutual Funds," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(5), pages 1365-1384, May.
    12. Ferson, Wayne E., 2013. "Investment Performance: A Review and Synthesis," 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 969-1010, Elsevier.
    13. Campbell R. Harvey & Yan Liu, 2020. "False (and Missed) Discoveries in Financial Economics," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(5), pages 2503-2553, October.
    14. Migliavacca, Milena & Goodell, John W. & Paltrinieri, Andrea, 2023. "A bibliometric review of portfolio diversification literature," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    15. Huij, Joop & Derwall, Jeroen, 2008. ""Hot Hands" in bond funds," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 559-572, April.
    16. Marie Brière & Ariane Szafarz, 2021. "When it rains, it pours: Multifactor asset management in good and bad times," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 44(3), pages 641-669, September.
    17. 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).
    18. Kai Li & Asani Sarkar & Zhenyu Wang, 1999. "Assessing the impact of short-sale constraints on the gains from international diversification," Staff Reports 89, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    19. Fletcher, Jonathan, 2018. "Betas V characteristics: Do stock characteristics enhance the investment opportunity set in U.K. stock returns?," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 114-129.
    20. Moneta, Fabio, 2015. "Measuring bond mutual fund performance with portfolio characteristics," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 223-242.

    More about this item

    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:bla:finrev:v:58:y:2023:i:4:p:765-782. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/efaaaea.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.