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Survivorship Bias and Mutual Fund Performance: Relevance, Significance, and Methodical Differences

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  • Martin Rohleder
  • Hendrik Scholz
  • Marco Wilkens

Abstract

This is the first paper systematically calculating, testing and explaining different definitions of the survivorship bias in fund performance. We document that the survival-performance-relation is stronger for small funds and we find significant under-performance of non-survivors but no significant out-performance of new funds. Survivorship bias is still a problem as well in other fields of research, e.g., in countries where survivorship bias-free data is not available and because certain methods require truncated data. This paper provides guidance on how to deal with and reduce survivorship bias in empirical studies. Copyright 2010, Oxford University Press.

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  • Martin Rohleder & Hendrik Scholz & Marco Wilkens, 2010. "Survivorship Bias and Mutual Fund Performance: Relevance, Significance, and Methodical Differences," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 15(2), pages 441-474.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:revfin:v:15:y:2010:i:2:p:441-474
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    2. Sebastian Krimm & Hendrik Scholz & Marco Wilkens, 2012. "The Sharpe ratio's market climate bias: Theoretical and empirical evidence from US equity mutual funds," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 13(4), pages 227-242, August.
    3. Oleksii Reva & Volodymyr Kamyshyn & Serhii Borsuk & Stanislav Yarotskyiі & Bogdan Avramchuk, 2023. "Eliminating "systematic survivorship bias" in the attitude of specialists to the significance of investment attractive features of examined objects," Eastern-European Journal of Enterprise Technologies, PC TECHNOLOGY CENTER, vol. 6(13 (126)), pages 54-64, December.
    4. Omneya Abdelsalam & Meryem Duygun & Juan Carlos Matallín-Sáez & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2014. "Is Ethical Money Sensitive to Past Returns? The Case of Portfolio Constraints and Persistence of Islamic and Socially Responsible Funds," Working Papers 2014/19, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    5. Martin Rohleder & Dominik Schulte & Marco Wilkens, 2017. "Management of flow risk in mutual funds," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 31-56, January.
    6. Omneya Abdelsalam & Meryem Duygun & Juan Carlos Matallín-Sáez & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2017. "Is Ethical Money Sensitive to Past Returns? The Case of Portfolio Constraints and Persistence in Islamic Funds," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 51(3), pages 363-384, June.
    7. Laura Fabregat-Aibar & Maria-Teresa Sorrosal-Forradellas & Glòria Barberà-Mariné & Antonio Terceño, 2021. "Can Artificial Neural Networks Predict the Survival Capacity of Mutual Funds? Evidence from Spain," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-10, March.
    8. Bernhard Breloer & Hannah Lea Hühn & Hendrik Scholz, 2016. "Jensen alpha and market climate," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 17(3), pages 195-214, May.
    9. Martin Rohleder, 2015. "The Relation between Past Flows and Future Performance: Simple Investment Strategies in the Mutual Fund Sector," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-28, February.
    10. Juan Carlos Matallín-Sáez & Amparo Soler-Domínguez & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2016. "Ethical strategy focus and mutual fund management: performance and persistence," Working Papers 2016/01, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    11. Cogneau, Philippe & Hübner, Georges, 2015. "The prediction of fund failure through performance diagnostics," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 224-241.
    12. Michela Altieri & Giovanna Nicodano, 2020. "Survival and Pricing Puzzles," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 604, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    13. 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.
    14. 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.
    15. Babalos, Vassilios & Philippas, Nikolaos & Doumpos, Michael & Zompounidis, Constantin, 2011. "Mutual funds performance appraisal using stochastic multicriteria acceptability analysis," MPRA Paper 37953, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Zalewska, Anna (Ania) & Zhang, Yue, 2020. "Mutual funds' exits, financial crisis and Darwin," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    17. Breloer, Bernhard & Scholz, Hendrik & Wilkens, Marco, 2014. "Performance of international and global equity mutual funds: Do country momentum and sector momentum matter?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 58-77.

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