IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finsta/v16y2015icp59-70.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sturm und Drang in money market funds: When money market funds cease to be narrow

Author

Listed:
  • Jank, Stephan
  • Wedow, Michael

Abstract

This paper investigates the returns and flows of German money market funds before and during the financial crisis of 2007/2008. The main finding of this paper is that, in liquid times, some money market funds (MMF) enhanced their returns by investing in riskier assets. By doing so they outperformed other MMFs, as long as liquidity in the market was high. Investing in riskier money market products, however, widens the typically narrow structure of MMFs and makes them vulnerable to withdrawals. When market liquidity declined during the subprime crisis, illiquid MMFs experienced withdrawals, while funds with safer and liquid portfolios functioned as a safe haven. As German MMFs calculate the value of their shares based on fluctuating net asset value, the findings inform the current debate on regulating MMFs.

Suggested Citation

  • Jank, Stephan & Wedow, Michael, 2015. "Sturm und Drang in money market funds: When money market funds cease to be narrow," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 59-70.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finsta:v:16:y:2015:i:c:p:59-70
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jfs.2014.12.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1572308914001272
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jfs.2014.12.002?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 look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jenke Ter Horst & Marno Verbeek, 2000. "Estimating Short-Run Persistence In Mutual Fund Performance," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 82(4), pages 646-655, November.
    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. Lyon, Andrew B, 1984. "Money Market Funds and Shareholder Dilution," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(4), pages 1011-1020, September.
    4. Brown, Stephen J & Goetzmann, William N, 1995. "Performance Persistence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(2), pages 679-698, June.
    5. Douglas W. Diamond & Philip H. Dybvig, 2000. "Bank runs, deposit insurance, and liquidity," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 24(Win), pages 14-23.
    6. Grinblatt, Mark & Titman, Sheridan, 1992. "The Persistence of Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(5), pages 1977-1984, December.
    7. Nanda, Vikram & Narayanan, M. P. & Warther, Vincent A., 2000. "Liquidity, investment ability, and mutual fund structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(3), pages 417-443, September.
    8. Erik R. Sirri & Peter Tufano, 1998. "Costly Search and Mutual Fund Flows," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 53(5), pages 1589-1622, October.
    9. Pennacchi, George, 2006. "Deposit insurance, bank regulation, and financial system risks," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 1-30, January.
    10. Coval, Joshua & Stafford, Erik, 2007. "Asset fire sales (and purchases) in equity markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 479-512, November.
    11. Geoffrey P. Miller, 1998. "On the Obsolescence of Commercial Banking," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 154(1), pages 1-61, March.
    12. Susan E. K. Christoffersen & David K. Musto, 2002. "Demand Curves and the Pricing of Money Management," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(5), pages 1499-1524.
    13. Chari, V V & Jagannathan, Ravi, 1988. " Banking Panics, Information, and Rational Expectations Equilibrium," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 43(3), pages 749-761, July.
    14. Brown, Stephen J, et al, 1992. "Survivorship Bias in Performance Studies," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 5(4), pages 553-580.
    15. Dahlquist, Magnus & Engström, Stefan & Söderlind, Paul, 2000. "Performance and Characteristics of Swedish Mutual Funds," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(3), pages 409-423, September.
    16. William Miles, 2001. "Can money market mutual funds provide sufficient liquidity to replace deposit insurance?," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 25(3), pages 328-342, September.
    17. Jacklin, Charles J & Bhattacharya, Sudipto, 1988. "Distinguishing Panics and Information-Based Bank Runs: Welfare and Policy Implications," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(3), pages 568-592, June.
    18. Jonathan B. Berk & Ian Tonks, 2007. "Return Persistence and Fund Flows in the Worst Performing Mutual Funds," NBER Working Papers 13042, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Bhargava, Rahul & Dubofsky, David A., 2001. "A note on fair value pricing of mutual funds," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 339-354, February.
    20. Chen, Qi & Goldstein, Itay & Jiang, Wei, 2010. "Payoff complementarities and financial fragility: Evidence from mutual fund outflows," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 239-262, August.
    21. 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.
    22. Gary D. Koppenhaver, 1999. "Circle unbroken: bank-affiliated money market mutual funds," Proceedings 613, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    23. Marcin Kacperczyk & Philipp Schnabl, 2013. "How Safe Are Money Market Funds?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(3), pages 1073-1122.
    24. Nickell, Stephen J, 1981. "Biases in Dynamic Models with Fixed Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(6), pages 1417-1426, November.
    25. G. Koppenhaver & Travis Sapp, 2005. "Money Funds or Markets? Valuing Intermediary Services," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 27(1), pages 51-76, February.
    26. Greene, Jason T. & Hodges, Charles W. & Rakowski, David A., 2007. "Daily mutual fund flows and redemption policies," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(12), pages 3822-3842, December.
    27. Bengtsson, Elias, 2013. "Shadow banking and financial stability: European money market funds in the global financial crisis," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 579-594.
    28. van den End, Jan Willem & Tabbae, Mostafa, 2012. "When liquidity risk becomes a systemic issue: Empirical evidence of bank behaviour," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 107-120.
    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. Timmermann, Allan & Wermers, Russ, 2014. "Runs on Money Market Funds," CEPR Discussion Papers 9906, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Mark Egan & Ali Hortaçsu & Gregor Matvos, 2017. "Deposit Competition and Financial Fragility: Evidence from the US Banking Sector," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(1), pages 169-216, January.
    3. Capotă, Laura-Dona & Grill, Michael & Molestina Vivar, Luis & Schmitz, Niklas & Weistroffer, Christian, 2022. "Is the EU money market fund regulation fit for purpose? Lessons from the COVID-19 turmoil," Working Paper Series 2737, European Central Bank.
    4. Bua, Giovanna & Dunne, Peter G. & Sorbo, Jacopo, 2019. "Money Market Funds and Unconventional Monetary Policy," Research Technical Papers 7/RT/19, Central Bank of Ireland.
    5. Jank, Stephan, 2012. "Mutual fund flows, expected returns, and the real economy," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 3060-3070.
    6. Fecht, Falko & Wedow, Michael, 2014. "The dark and the bright side of liquidity risks: Evidence from open-end real estate funds in Germany," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 376-399.
    7. Witmer, Jonathan, 2016. "Does the buck stop here? A comparison of withdrawals from money market mutual funds with floating and constant share prices," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 126-142.
    8. Patrick E. McCabe, 2010. "The cross section of money market fund risks and financial crises," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2010-51, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    9. Kim, Hugh Hoikwang, 2020. "Information spillover of bailouts," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    10. Thomas Johann & Stefan Scharnowski & Erik Theissen & Christian Westheide & Lukas Zimmermann, 2019. "Liquidity in the German Stock Market," Schmalenbach Business Review, Springer;Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft, vol. 71(4), pages 443-473, October.
    11. Lawrence Schmidt & Allan Timmermann & Russ Wermers, 2016. "Runs on Money Market Mutual Funds," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(9), pages 2625-2657, September.
    12. Bengtsson, Elias, 2013. "Shadow banking and financial stability: European money market funds in the global financial crisis," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 579-594.

    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. Dunhong Jin & Marcin Kacperczyk & Bige Kahraman & Felix Suntheim, 2022. "Swing Pricing and Fragility in Open-End Mutual Funds," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 35(1), pages 1-50.
    2. Witmer, Jonathan, 2016. "Does the buck stop here? A comparison of withdrawals from money market mutual funds with floating and constant share prices," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 126-142.
    3. Fecht, Falko & Wedow, Michael, 2014. "The dark and the bright side of liquidity risks: Evidence from open-end real estate funds in Germany," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 376-399.
    4. Qian, Meijun & Tanyeri, Başak, 2017. "Litigation and mutual-fund runs," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 119-135.
    5. Sergey Chernenko & Adi Sunderam, 2016. "Liquidity Transformation in Asset Management: Evidence from the Cash Holdings of Mutual Funds," NBER Working Papers 22391, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Bessler, Wolfgang & Blake, David & Lückoff, Peter & Tonks, Ian, 2010. "Why does mutual fund performance not persist? The impact and interaction of fund flows and manager changes," MPRA Paper 34185, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. 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.
    8. Roy Havemann, 2018. "Can creditor bail-in trigger contagion? The experience of an emerging market," Working Papers 755, Economic Research Southern Africa.
    9. Chernenko, Sergey & Sunderam, Adi, 2016. "Liquidity transformation in asset management: Evidence from the cash holdings of mutual funds," ESRB Working Paper Series 23, European Systemic Risk Board.
    10. Molestina Vivar, Luis & Wedow, Michael & Weistroffer, Christian, 2023. "Burned by leverage? Flows and fragility in bond mutual funds," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 354-380.
    11. Bua, Giovanna & Dunne, Peter G. & Sorbo, Jacopo, 2019. "Money Market Funds and Unconventional Monetary Policy," Research Technical Papers 7/RT/19, Central Bank of Ireland.
    12. Goldstein, Itay & Jiang, Hao & Ng, David T., 2017. "Investor flows and fragility in corporate bond funds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(3), pages 592-613.
    13. Nanda, Vikram K. & Wang, Z. Jay & Zheng, Lu, 2009. "The ABCs of mutual funds: On the introduction of multiple share classes," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 329-361, July.
    14. 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.
    15. Li Xian Liu & Fuming Jiang & Jizhong Li & Omar Al Farooque, 2021. "Antecedents of Equity Fund Performance: A Contingency Perspective," Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies (RPBFMP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 24(01), pages 1-40, March.
    16. Mazur, Mieszko & Salganik-Shoshan, Galla & Zagonov, Maxim, 2017. "Comparing performance sensitivity of retail and institutional mutual funds’ investment flows," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 66-73.
    17. Beck, Thorsten & Carletti, Elena & Goldstein, Itay, 2016. "Financial Regulation in Europe: Foundations and Challenges," CEPR Discussion Papers 11147, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Aragon, George O. & Kim, Min S., 2023. "Fire sale risk and expected stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(3), pages 578-609.
    19. Jannic Cutura & Gianpaolo Parise & Andreas Schrimpf, 2020. "Debt De-risking," BIS Working Papers 868, Bank for International Settlements.
    20. Patrick E. McCabe, 2010. "The cross section of money market fund risks and financial crises," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2010-51, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Money market funds; Liquidity crisis; Redemptions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages

    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:finsta:v:16:y:2015:i:c:p:59-70. 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/jfstabil .

    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.