IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finana/v92y2024ics1057521923005744.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of salient fees: Evidence from the mutual fund market

Author

Listed:
  • Parida, Sitikantha

Abstract

In 2004 the SEC began requiring mutual funds to include the dollar amount of fund fees in shareholders reports. Before that, funds reported returns net of fees and didn't disclose fees separately. This natural experiment allows me to study the impact of separate reporting of fees on the level of fund fees. I find that average reported retail fund fees decreased by 27 basis points during the five-year period after the change in this rule, compared to the five-year period before the change. This reduction in fees was much higher for funds with higher fees and more volatile returns. I also find that fund investment became more sensitive to fund fees after 2004. These findings support the narrative that reporting of mutual fund fees separately in dollars made fund fees more salient and helped increase fee awareness among the investors, which, in turn, forced mutual funds to decrease fees.

Suggested Citation

  • Parida, Sitikantha, 2024. "The impact of salient fees: Evidence from the mutual fund market," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finana:v:92:y:2024:i:c:s1057521923005744
    DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2023.103058
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057521923005744
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.irfa.2023.103058?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. Vikas Agarwal & Kevin A. Mullally & Yuehua Tang & Baozhong Yang, 2015. "Mandatory Portfolio Disclosure, Stock Liquidity, and Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(6), pages 2733-2776, December.
    2. Richard A. Ippolito, 1989. "Efficiency with Costly Information: A Study of Mutual Fund Performance, 1965–1984," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 104(1), pages 1-23.
    3. Michael C. Jensen, 1968. "The Performance Of Mutual Funds In The Period 1945–1964," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(2), pages 389-416, May.
    4. John Beshears & James J. Choi & David Laibson & Brigitte C. Madrian, 2011. "How Does Simplified Disclosure Affect Individuals' Mutual Fund Choices?," NBER Chapters, in: Explorations in the Economics of Aging, pages 75-96, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Ali Hortaçsu & Chad Syverson, 2004. "Product Differentiation, Search Costs, and Competition in the Mutual Fund Industry: A Case Study of S&P 500 Index Funds," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(2), pages 403-456.
    6. repec:bla:jfinan:v:55:y:2000:i:4:p:1655-1703 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. James J. Choi & David Laibson & Brigitte C. Madrian, 2010. "Why Does the Law of One Price Fail? An Experiment on Index Mutual Funds," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(4), pages 1405-1432, April.
    8. Agapova, Anna, 2011. "Conventional mutual index funds versus exchange-traded funds," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 323-343, May.
    9. Russ Wermers, 2000. "Mutual Fund Performance: An Empirical Decomposition into Stock‐Picking Talent, Style, Transactions Costs, and Expenses," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1655-1695, August.
    10. Javier Gil‐Bazo & Pablo Ruiz‐Verdú, 2009. "The Relation between Price and Performance in the Mutual Fund Industry," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(5), pages 2153-2183, October.
    11. Gruber, Martin J, 1996. "Another Puzzle: The Growth in Activity Managed Mutual Funds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(3), pages 783-810, July.
    12. Burton G. Malkiel, 2013. "Asset Management Fees and the Growth of Finance," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(2), pages 97-108, Spring.
    13. Richard H. Thaler, 2008. "Mental Accounting and Consumer Choice," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(1), pages 15-25, 01-02.
    14. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    15. Parida, Sitikantha & Teo, Terence, 2018. "The impact of more frequent portfolio disclosure on mutual fund performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 427-445.
    16. Parida, Sitikantha & Tang, Zhenyang, 2018. "Price competition in the mutual fund industry," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 29-39.
    17. Brad M. Barber & Terrance Odean & Lu Zheng, 2005. "Out of Sight, Out of Mind: The Effects of Expenses on Mutual Fund Flows," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(6), pages 2095-2120, November.
    18. John Beshears & James J. Choi & David Laibson & Brigitte C. Madrian, 2011. "How Does Simplified Disclosure Affect Individuals' Mutual Fund Choices?," NBER Chapters, in: Explorations in the Economics of Aging, pages 75-96, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Santosh Anagol & Hugh Hoikwang Kim, 2012. "The Impact of Shrouded Fees: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in the Indian Mutual Funds Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(1), pages 576-593, February.
    20. Amy Finkelstein, 2007. "The Aggregate Effects of Health Insurance: Evidence from the Introduction of Medicare," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(1), pages 1-37.
    21. repec:hrv:hksfac:4415902 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. deHaan, Ed & Song, Yang & Xie, Chloe & Zhu, Christina, 2021. "Obfuscation in mutual funds," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2).
    2. A. Joseph Warburton, 2012. "Competition in Financial Services: Evidence from British Mutual Funds," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(4), pages 827-858, December.
    3. James J. Choi & David Laibson & Brigitte C. Madrian, 2010. "Why Does the Law of One Price Fail? An Experiment on Index Mutual Funds," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(4), pages 1405-1432, April.
    4. Boldin, Michael & Cici, Gjergji, 2010. "The index fund rationality paradox," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 33-43, January.
    5. Carmen Pilar Martí Ballester, 2020. "Does Concurrent Management of Mutual Funds and Pension Plans Create Conflicts of Interest?," Ensayos de Economía 18307, Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Medellín.
    6. Carneiro, Livia Mendes & Eid Junior, William & Yoshinaga, Claudia Emiko, 2022. "The implications of passive investments for active fund management: International evidence," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    7. Ana C. Díaz†Mendoza & Germán López†Espinosa & Miguel A. Martínez, 2014. "The Efficiency of Performance†Based Fee Funds," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 20(4), pages 825-855, September.
    8. Ayadi, Mohamed A. & Kryzanowski, Lawrence & Mohebshahedin, Mahmood, 2018. "Impact of sponsorship on fixed-income fund performance," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 121-137.
    9. Guiso, Luigi & Sodini, Paolo, 2013. "Household Finance: An Emerging Field," 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 1397-1532, Elsevier.
    10. Anufriev, Mikhail & Bao, Te & Sutan, Angela & Tuinstra, Jan, 2019. "Fee structure and mutual fund choice: An experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 449-474.
    11. Bianchi, Daniele & Babiak, Mykola, 2022. "On the performance of cryptocurrency funds," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    12. Babalos, Vassilios & Kostakis, Alexandros & Philippas, Nikolaos, 2009. "Managing mutual funds or managing expense ratios? Evidence from the Greek fund industry," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 256-272, October.
    13. Katarzyna Perez & £ukasz Szymczyk, 2022. "Actual rate of the management fee in mutual funds of different styles," Equilibrium. Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economic Policy, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 17(4), pages 969-1014, December.
    14. Massa, Massimo & Cheng, Si & Zhang, Hong, 2021. "Tax Evasion and Market Efficiency: Evidence from the FATCA and Offshore Mutual Funds," CEPR Discussion Papers 15747, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Mark Grinblatt & Seppo Ikäheimo & Matti Keloharju & Samuli Knüpfer, 2016. "IQ and Mutual Fund Choice," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(4), pages 924-944, April.
    16. F. Douglas Foster & Geoffrey J. Warren, 2015. "Why Might Investors Choose Active Management?," Journal of Behavioral Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(1), pages 20-39, January.
    17. Casavecchia, Lorenzo & Hulley, Hardy, 2018. "Are mutual fund investors paying for noise?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 8-23.
    18. Livingston, Miles & Yao, Ping & Zhou, Lei, 2019. "The volatility of mutual fund performance," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 1-1.
    19. Vidal, Marta & Vidal-García, Javier & Lean, Hooi Hooi & Uddin, Gazi Salah, 2015. "The relation between fees and return predictability in the mutual fund industry," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 260-270.
    20. Newall, Philip Warren Stirling & Parker, Katie, 2017. "Improved mutual fund investment choice architecture," OSF Preprints qknjt, Center for Open Science.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Salient fees; Fee-based competition; Mutual fund; Dollar fee amounts; Natural experiment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation

    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:finana:v:92:y:2024:i:c:s1057521923005744. 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/inca/620166 .

    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.