IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormnsc/v67y2021i2p1227-1248.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Transaction Costs, Portfolio Characteristics, and Mutual Fund Performance

Author

Listed:
  • Jeffrey A. Busse

    (Goizueta Business School, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322)

  • Tarun Chordia

    (Goizueta Business School, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322)

  • Lei Jiang

    (School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China)

  • Yuehua Tang

    (Warrington College of Business, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611)

Abstract

We study the interdependencies between transaction costs, portfolio characteristics, and mutual fund performance. Using a novel data set of actual mutual fund trades, we find that, controlling for investment style, larger funds realize lower percentage transaction costs than smaller funds. Larger mutual funds trade less frequently and hold bigger stocks to actively avoid incurring higher trading costs. Gross returns of larger funds are lower than those of smaller funds due, in part, to the characteristics of their holdings, which suggests that decreasing returns to scale could arise due to limited investment opportunities because of trading cost constraints. Taken together, our results highlight the trade-offs faced by mutual funds between trading costs, portfolio characteristics, and fund performance as they grow in size. This paper was accepted by Karl Diether, finance.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeffrey A. Busse & Tarun Chordia & Lei Jiang & Yuehua Tang, 2021. "Transaction Costs, Portfolio Characteristics, and Mutual Fund Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(2), pages 1227-1248, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:67:y:2021:i:2:p:1227-1248
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2019.3524
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2019.3524
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mnsc.2019.3524?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. Yan, Xuemin (Sterling), 2008. "Liquidity, Investment Style, and the Relation between Fund Size and Fund Performance," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(3), pages 741-767, September.
    2. Acharya, Viral V. & Pedersen, Lasse Heje, 2005. "Asset pricing with liquidity risk," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(2), pages 375-410, August.
    3. Fama, Eugene F & French, Kenneth R, 1992. "The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 427-465, June.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. Jeffrey A. Busse & Qing Tong, 2012. "Mutual Fund Industry Selection and Persistence," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 2(2), pages 245-274.
    7. 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.
    8. Wayne Ferson & Jerchern Lin, 2014. "Alpha and Performance Measurement: The Effects of Investor Disagreement and Heterogeneity," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(4), pages 1565-1596, August.
    9. Robert Novy-Marx & Mihail Velikov, 2016. "A Taxonomy of Anomalies and Their Trading Costs," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(1), pages 104-147.
    10. Marcin Kacperczyk & Clemens Sialm & Lu Zheng, 2008. "Unobserved Actions of Mutual Funds," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(6), pages 2379-2416, November.
    11. 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.
    12. repec:bla:jfinan:v:55:y:2000:i:4:p:1655-1703 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Amihud, Yakov, 2002. "Illiquidity and stock returns: cross-section and time-series effects," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 31-56, January.
    14. Chemmanur, Thomas J. & He, Shan & Hu, Gang, 2009. "The role of institutional investors in seasoned equity offerings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(3), pages 384-411, December.
    15. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:2:p:869-898 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Edwin J. Elton & Martin J. Gruber & Christopher R. Blake, 2012. "Does Mutual Fund Size Matter? The Relationship Between Size and Performance," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 2(1), pages 31-55.
    17. Diane Del Guercio & Jonathan Reuter, 2014. "Mutual Fund Performance and the Incentive to Generate Alpha," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(4), pages 1673-1704, August.
    18. 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.
    19. Falkenstein, Eric G, 1996. "Preferences for Stock Characteristics as Revealed by Mutual Fund Portfolio Holdings," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(1), pages 111-135, March.
    20. Daniel, Kent & Titman, Sheridan, 1997. "Evidence on the Characteristics of Cross Sectional Variation in Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 1-33, March.
    21. Edelen, Roger M. & Evans, Richard B. & Kadlec, Gregory B., 2012. "Disclosure and agency conflict: Evidence from mutual fund commission bundling," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(2), pages 308-326.
    22. 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.
    23. Busse, Jeffrey A. & Clifton Green, T. & Jegadeesh, Narasimhan, 2012. "Buy-side trades and sell-side recommendations: Interactions and information content," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 207-232.
    24. Newey, Whitney & West, Kenneth, 2014. "A simple, positive semi-definite, heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation consistent covariance matrix," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 33(1), pages 125-132.
    25. Bollen, Nicolas P. B. & Busse, Jeffrey A., 2006. "Tick Size and Institutional Trading Costs: Evidence from Mutual Funds," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(4), pages 915-937, December.
    26. Amber Anand & Paul Irvine & Andy Puckett & Kumar Venkataraman, 2012. "Performance of Institutional Trading Desks: An Analysis of Persistence in Trading Costs," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(2), pages 557-598.
    27. Yang Song, 2020. "The Mismatch Between Mutual Fund Scale and Skill," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(5), pages 2555-2589, October.
    28. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    29. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:5:p:1589-1622 is not listed on IDEAS
    30. Gao, Xiaohui & Ritter, Jay R., 2010. "The marketing of seasoned equity offerings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 33-52, July.
    31. Zhu, Min, 2018. "Informative fund size, managerial skill, and investor rationality," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(1), pages 114-134.
    32. Jonathan B. Berk & Richard C. Green, 2004. "Mutual Fund Flows and Performance in Rational Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(6), pages 1269-1295, December.
    33. Anand, Amber & Irvine, Paul & Puckett, Andy & Venkataraman, Kumar, 2013. "Institutional trading and stock resiliency: Evidence from the 2007–2009 financial crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(3), pages 773-797.
    34. Fama, Eugene F & MacBeth, James D, 1973. "Risk, Return, and Equilibrium: Empirical Tests," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 607-636, May-June.
    35. John M.R. Chalmers & Roger M. Edelen & Gregory B. Kadlec, "undated". "Mutual fund trading costs," Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research Working Papers 27-99, Wharton School Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research.
    36. Amihud, Yakov & Mendelson, Haim, 1986. "Asset pricing and the bid-ask spread," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 223-249, December.
    37. Gerard Hoberg & Nitin Kumar & Nagpurnanand Prabhala, 2018. "Mutual Fund Competition, Managerial Skill, and Alpha Persistence," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(5), pages 1896-1929.
    38. Michael A. Goldstein & Paul Irvine & Eugene Kandel & Zvi Wiener, 2009. "Brokerage Commissions and Institutional Trading Patterns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(12), pages 5175-5212, December.
    39. Richard B. Evans, 2010. "Mutual Fund Incubation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(4), pages 1581-1611, August.
    40. Marcin Kacperczyk & Clemens Sialm & Lu Zheng, 2005. "On the Industry Concentration of Actively Managed Equity Mutual Funds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(4), pages 1983-2011, August.
    41. Keim, Donald B. & Madhavan, Ananth, 1997. "Transactions costs and investment style: an inter-exchange analysis of institutional equity trades," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 265-292, December.
    42. Brennan, Michael J. & Chordia, Tarun & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 1998. "Alternative factor specifications, security characteristics, and the cross-section of expected stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 345-373, September.
    43. 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.
    44. Banz, Rolf W., 1981. "The relationship between return and market value of common stocks," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 3-18, March.
    45. Andy Puckett & Xuemin (Sterling) Yan, 2011. "The Interim Trading Skills of Institutional Investors," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(2), pages 601-633, 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. Xu, Wenhao & Chen, Taoqin, 2024. "Mutual fund value creation: Insights from the residual income model," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(PB).
    2. Stein, Roberto, 2023. "Are mutual fund managers good gamblers?," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    3. Hongxin Zhao & Yilun Jiang & Yizhou Yang, 2023. "Robust and Sparse Portfolio: Optimization Models and Algorithms," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-20, December.
    4. Ha, Yeonjeong & Oh, Haejune, 2024. "Choice for smart investment in mutual funds: Single- or multi-period performance ranks," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    5. Liu, Xiaoming & Shen, Xieyang & Wang, Changyun & Zeng, Jianyu, 2023. "Do fund managers' tones predict future performance? Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    6. de Jong, Abe & Kooijmans, Tim & Veld, Chris, 2022. "Legal risk and information spillover through private lender reports," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    7. Susan K Christoffersen & Donald B Keim & David K Musto & Aleksandra Rzeźnik, 2022. "Passive-Aggressive Trading: The Supply and Demand of Liquidity by Mutual Funds [Does motivation matter when assessing trade performance? An analysis of mutual funds]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 26(5), pages 1145-1177.
    8. Bai, John Jianqiu & Tang, Yuehua & Wan, Chi & Yüksel, H. Zafer, 2022. "Fund manager skill in an era of globalization: Offshore concentration and fund performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 18-40.
    9. Roy, Suvra & Nguyen, Harvey & Visaltanachoti, Nuttawat, 2023. "Be nice to the air: Severe haze pollution and mutual fund risk," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    10. Adams, John & Hayunga, Darren & Mansi, Sattar, 2022. "Index fund trading costs are inversely related to fund and family size," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    11. Jordan, Bradford D. & Li, Ang & Liu, Mark H., 2022. "Mutual fund preference for pure-play firms," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    12. Wang, Qian & Yang, Xiao, 2024. "Towards carbon neutrality: The role of innovation and resources efficiency in China's economic transformation," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    13. Hung-Wen Lin & Jing-Bo Huang & Kun-Ben Lin & Shu-Heng Chen, 2022. "The competitions of time-varying and constant loadings in asset pricing models: empirical evidence and agent-based simulations," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 17(2), pages 577-612, April.
    14. Diego Víctor de Mingo-López & Juan Carlos Matallín-Sáez & Amparo Soler-Domínguez & Huseyin Ozturk & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2023. "Persistence versus mobility of sociallyresponsible funds: intra-distribution dynamics and mobility trends," Working Papers 2023/09, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).

    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. Ying Liao & Cuixia Li & Lei Jiang & Liang Peng, 2021. "Quantifying Diseconomies Of Scale For Mutual Funds," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 22(1), pages 1-24, May.
    2. Pástor, Ľuboš & Stambaugh, Robert F. & Taylor, Lucian A., 2020. "Fund tradeoffs," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(3), pages 614-634.
    3. Cici, Gjergji & Dahm, Laura K. & Kempf, Alexander, 2014. "Trading efficiency of fund families: Impact on fund performance and investment behavior," CFR Working Papers 14-14, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    4. Patton, Andrew J. & Weller, Brian M., 2020. "What you see is not what you get: The costs of trading market anomalies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(2), pages 515-549.
    5. Wolfgang Bessler & Thomas Conlon & Diego Víctor de Mingo‐López & Juan Carlos Matallín‐Sáez, 2022. "Mutual fund performance and changes in factor exposure," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 45(1), pages 17-52, March.
    6. Bai, John Jianqiu & Tang, Yuehua & Wan, Chi & Yüksel, H. Zafer, 2022. "Fund manager skill in an era of globalization: Offshore concentration and fund performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 18-40.
    7. 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.
    8. Dahm, Laura K. & Sorhage, Christoph, 2015. "Milk or wine: Mutual funds' (dis)economies of life," CFR Working Papers 15-05, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    9. 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.
    10. 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.
    11. Ali, Ashiq & Chen, Xuanjuan & Yao, Tong & Yu, Tong, 2020. "Can mutual funds profit from post earnings announcement drift? The role of competition," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    12. Eisele, Alexander & Nefedova, Tamara & Parise, Gianpaolo & Peijnenburg, Kim, 2020. "Trading out of sight: An analysis of cross-trading in mutual fund families," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(2), pages 359-378.
    13. Angelidis, Timotheos & Babalos, Vassilios & Fessas, Michalis, 2021. "The economic gain of being small in the mutual fund industry: U.S. and international evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    14. Viktoriya Lantushenko & Edward Nelling, 2020. "Active Management in Real Estate Mutual Funds," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 247-274, August.
    15. Suresh Nallareddy & Maria Ogneva, 2017. "Accrual quality, skill, and the cross-section of mutual fund returns," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 503-542, June.
    16. Boguth, Oliver & Simutin, Mikhail, 2018. "Leverage constraints and asset prices: Insights from mutual fund risk taking," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(2), pages 325-341.
    17. Hu, Gang & Jo, Koren M. & Wang, Yi Alex & Xie, Jing, 2018. "Institutional trading and Abel Noser data," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 143-167.
    18. Feldman, David & Saxena, Konark & Xu, Jingrui, 2020. "Is the active fund management industry concentrated enough?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 23-43.
    19. 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.
    20. Lan, Chunhua & Moneta, Fabio & Wermers, Russ, 2018. "Holding Horizon: A New Measure of Active Investment Management," CFR Working Papers 15-06, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR), revised 2018.

    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:inm:ormnsc:v:67:y:2021:i:2:p:1227-1248. 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: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.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.