IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/empfin/v60y2021icp74-93.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mutual fund performance: Using bespoke benchmarks to disentangle mandates, constraints and skill

Author

Listed:
  • Beber, Alessandro
  • Brandt, Michael W.
  • Cen, Jason
  • Kavajecz, Kenneth A.

Abstract

While no two mutual funds are alike in terms of their mandates and constraints, metrics used to evaluate fund performance relative to peers typically fail to account for these differences by relying on generic benchmark indices and rankings. We develop a methodology to construct a conditional multi-factor benchmark that explicitly incorporates the details of a given fund’s mandates and constraints. The results suggest that (i) mandates and constraints are economically important and affect funds differently, (ii) in general, the average mutual fund has a much improved track record when comparing themselves to a bespoke benchmark, and (iii) the rank ordering of fund bespoke performance relative peers is significantly different than the original rank ordering suggesting advisors and board of directors would make better decisions regarding compensation and performance assessment respectively, if they incorporate the impact of mandates and constraints.

Suggested Citation

  • Beber, Alessandro & Brandt, Michael W. & Cen, Jason & Kavajecz, Kenneth A., 2021. "Mutual fund performance: Using bespoke benchmarks to disentangle mandates, constraints and skill," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 74-93.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:empfin:v:60:y:2021:i:c:p:74-93
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jempfin.2020.12.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927539820300864
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jempfin.2020.12.001?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael W. Brandt & Pedro Santa-Clara & Rossen Valkanov, 2009. "Parametric Portfolio Policies: Exploiting Characteristics in the Cross-Section of Equity Returns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(9), pages 3411-3447, September.
    2. Daniel, Kent, et al, 1997. "Measuring Mutual Fund Performance with Characteristic-Based Benchmarks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(3), pages 1035-1058, July.
    3. Blake, Christopher R. & Morey, Matthew R., 2000. "Morningstar Ratings and Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(3), pages 451-483, September.
    4. Marie Briere & Ariane Szafarz, 2017. "Factor Investing: The Rocky Road from Long-Only to Long-Short," Working Papers CEB 17-013, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    5. Guercio, Diane Del & Tkac, Paula A., 2008. "Star Power: The Effect of Monrningstar Ratings on Mutual Fund Flow," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(4), pages 907-936, December.
    6. Sensoy, Berk A., 2009. "Performance evaluation and self-designated benchmark indexes in the mutual fund industry," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 25-39, 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. Inkmann, Joachim, 2024. "Aggregate portfolio choice," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).

    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. Otero-González, Luis & Durán-Santomil, Pablo, 2021. "Is quantitative and qualitative information relevant for choosing mutual funds?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 476-488.
    2. Huaizhi Chen & Lauren Cohen & Umit G. Gurun, 2021. "Don't Take Their Word for It: The Misclassification of Bond Mutual Funds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 76(4), pages 1699-1730, August.
    3. Clemens Sialm & Laura T. Starks & Hanjiang Zhang, 2015. "Defined Contribution Pension Plans: Sticky or Discerning Money?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(2), pages 805-838, April.
    4. Alda, Mercedes & Andreu, Laura & Sarto, José Luis, 2017. "Learning about individual managers’ performance in UK pension funds: The importance of specialization," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 654-667.
    5. Veeravel. V & A. Balakrishnan, 2023. "Persistence of Large-Cap Equity Funds performance, market timing ability, and selectivity: evidence from India," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 30(1), pages 37-48, March.
    6. Bredin, Don & Cuthbertson, Keith & Nitzsche, Dirk & Thomas, Dylan C., 2014. "Performance and performance persistence of UK closed-end equity funds," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 189-199.
    7. Ganji, Gajanan & Kale, Arati & Kale, Devendra, 2021. "Is beauty skin deep?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(C).
    8. Daniel Chiew & Judy Qiu & Sirimon Treepongkaruna & Jiping Yang & Chenxiao Shi, 2019. "The predictive ability of the expected utility-entropy based fund rating approach: A comparison investigation with Morningstar ratings in US," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(4), pages 1-22, April.
    9. Nerissa C. Brown & Kelsey D. Wei & Russ Wermers, 2014. "Analyst Recommendations, Mutual Fund Herding, and Overreaction in Stock Prices," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(1), pages 1-20, January.
    10. Zaremba, Adam & Andreu, Laura, 2018. "Paper profits or real money? Trading costs and stock market anomalies in country ETFs," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 181-192.
    11. Artiga Gonzalez, Tanja & Dyakov, Teodor & Inhoffen, Justus & Wipplinger, Evert, 2024. "Crowding of international mutual funds," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    12. Jonathan Reuter & Eric Zitzewitz, 2006. "Do Ads Influence Editors? Advertising and Bias in the Financial Media," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(1), pages 197-227.
    13. Pástor, Ľuboš & Stambaugh, Robert F. & Taylor, Lucian A., 2015. "Scale and skill in active management," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 23-45.
    14. Mateus, Irina B. & Mateus, Cesario & Todorovic, Natasa, 2016. "UK equity mutual fund alphas make a comeback," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 98-110.
    15. Pedro Carmona & Alexandre Momparler & Francisco Climent, 2023. "A Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Causal Configurations Influencing Mutual Fund Performance: The Role of Fund Manager Skill," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-23, October.
    16. Fang, Dawei & Holmen, Martin & Mavruk, Taylan, 2021. "Meeting new peers: The effects of Morningstar category reassignment on fund flows and star ratings," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    17. Manuel Ammann & Sebastian Fischer & Florian Weigert, 2018. "Risk Factor Exposure Variation and Mutual Fund Performance," Working Papers on Finance 1817, University of St. Gallen, School of Finance, revised Nov 2018.
    18. Irina Bezhentseva Mateus & Cesario Mateus & Natasa Todorovic, 2019. "Benchmark-adjusted performance of US equity mutual funds and the issue of prospectus benchmarks," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 20(1), pages 15-30, February.
    19. Pedro Barroso & Jurij-Andrei Reichenecker & Marco J. Menichetti, 2022. "Hedging with an Edge: Parametric Currency Overlay," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(1), pages 669-689, January.
    20. Pástor, Ľuboš & Stambaugh, Robert F. & Taylor, Lucian A., 2015. "Scale and skill in active management," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 23-45.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mutual funds; Performance evaluation; Benchmarks; Mandates and constraints;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

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

    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:eee:empfin:v:60:y:2021:i:c:p:74-93. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jempfin .

    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.