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Expense Shifting: An Empirical Study of Agency Costs in the Mutual Fund Industry

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  • Nicolaj Siggelkow

Abstract

Using a dataset comprising almost all equity and bond funds in existence in 1996, we find that fund providers shift advertising and distribution expenses via so-called 12b-1 fees onto fund shareholders. It is further shown that bonds funds with 12b-1 fees are more risky, while having similar returns, than bond funds without 12b-1 fees. Lastly, we find that fund providers shift part of their research expenses onto fund shareholders by generating soft dollars (rebates in form of research services provided by brokers in return for excess commissions paid by fund providers) and not reducing explicit fees.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicolaj Siggelkow, 1999. "Expense Shifting: An Empirical Study of Agency Costs in the Mutual Fund Industry," Center for Financial Institutions Working Papers 99-09, Wharton School Center for Financial Institutions, University of Pennsylvania.
    • Handle: RePEc:wop:pennin:99-09
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    File URL: http://fic.wharton.upenn.edu/fic/papers/99/9909.pdf
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    Cited by:

    1. Bank for International Settlements, 2003. "Incentive structures in institutional asset management and their implications for financial markets," CGFS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 21, October –.
    2. Gil-Bazo, Javier, 2001. "Portfolio management fees: assets or profits based compensation?," DEE - Working Papers. Business Economics. WB wb012207, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía de la Empresa.
    3. Anolli, Mario & Del Giudice, Alfonso, 2008. "Italian Open End Mutual Fund Costs," MPRA Paper 8111, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. 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.
    5. Paul G. Mahoney, 2004. "Manager-Investor Conflicts in Mutual Funds," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 18(2), pages 161-182, Spring.
    6. Jeremy Burke & Angela A. Hung & Jack Clift & Steven Garber & Joanne K. Yoong, 2015. "Impacts of Conflicts of Interest in the Financial Services Industry," Working Papers WR-1076, RAND Corporation.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mutual Funds; Agency Costs; 12b-1 Fees; Soft Dollars;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • L14 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation

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