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Are Mutual Fund Managers Paid For Investment Skill?

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  • Van Nieuwerburgh, Stijn
  • Vestman, Roine
  • Kaniel, Ron
  • Ibert, Markus

Abstract

Compensation of mutual fund managers is paramount to understanding agency frictions in asset delegation. We collect a unique registry-based data set on the compensation of Swedish mutual fund managers. We find a concave relationship between pay and revenue, in contrast to how investors compensate the fund company (firm). We also find a surprisingly weak sensitivity of pay to performance, even after accounting for the indirect effects of performance on revenue. Firm-level revenues and profits add substantial explanatory power for compensation to manager-level revenue and performance, highlighting the importance of the mutual fund firm.

Suggested Citation

  • Van Nieuwerburgh, Stijn & Vestman, Roine & Kaniel, Ron & Ibert, Markus, 2017. "Are Mutual Fund Managers Paid For Investment Skill?," CEPR Discussion Papers 12010, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12010
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    3. Adam Farago & Martin Holmén & Felix Holzmeister & Michael Kirchler & Michael Razen, 2022. "Cognitive Skills and Economic Preferences in the Fund Industry," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(645), pages 1737-1764.
    4. Buffa, Andrea M. & Hodor, Idan, 2023. "Institutional investors, heterogeneous benchmarks and the comovement of asset prices," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(2), pages 352-381.
    5. Matthijs Breugem & Adrian Buss, 2017. "Institutional Investors and Information Acquisition: Implications for Asset Prices and Informational Efficiency," NBER Working Papers 23561, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Coen, Patrick, 2021. "Information Loss over the Business Cycle," TSE Working Papers 21-1220, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    7. Lindbeck, Assar & Weibull, Jörgen, 2020. "Delegation of investment decisions, and optimal remuneration of agents," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    8. Sotes-Paladino, Juan & Zapatero, Fernando, 2022. "Carrot and stick: A role for benchmark-adjusted compensation in active fund management," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    9. Chernenko, Sergey & Sunderam, Adi, 2020. "Do fire sales create externalities?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(3), pages 602-628.
    10. Zambrana, Rafael & Zapatero, Fernando, 2021. "A tale of two types: Generalists vs. specialists in asset management," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 844-861.
    11. 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.
    12. Sergey Chernenko & Adi Sunderam, 2018. "Do Fire Sales Create Externalities?," NBER Working Papers 25104, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Yan Lu & Kevin Mullally & Sugata Ray, 2023. "Paying for Performance in Public Pension Plans," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(8), pages 4888-4907, August.
    14. Arpit Gupta & Kunal Sachdeva, 2019. "Skin or Skim? Inside Investment and Hedge Fund Performance," NBER Working Papers 26113, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Cici, Gjergji & Hendriock, Mario & Kempf, Alexander, 2022. "Finding your calling: Matching skills with jobs in the mutual fund industry," CFR Working Papers 19-05, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR), revised 2022.
    16. Ibert, Markus, 2023. "What do mutual fund managers’ private portfolios tell us about their skills?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    17. Ricardo Barahona & Stefano Cassella & Kristy A. E. Jansen, 2023. "Do Teams Alleviate or Exacerbate the Extrapolation Bias in the Stock Market?," Working Papers 2335, Banco de España.
    18. Nikolai Roussanov & Hongxun Ruan & Yanhao Wei & Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, 2021. "Marketing Mutual Funds," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(6), pages 3045-3094.
    19. Yue Xu, 2021. "Spillovers of Senior Mutual Fund Managers’ Capital Raising Ability," CREATES Research Papers 2022-03, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    20. Dahlquist, Magnus & Ibert, Markus & Wilke, Felix, 2020. "Expectations of Active Mutual Fund Performance," CEPR Discussion Papers 15548, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    21. Farago, Adam & Holmén, Martin & Holzmeister, Felix & Kirchler, Michael & Razen, Michael, 2019. "Cognitive Skills and Economic Preferences in the Fund Industry," OSF Preprints 964ba, Center for Open Science.
    22. Kaniel, Ron & Lin, Zihan & Pelger, Markus & Van Nieuwerburgh, Stijn, 2023. "Machine-learning the skill of mutual fund managers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(1), pages 94-138.
    23. Matthijs Breugem & Adrian Buss, 2017. "Institutional Investors and Information Acquisition: Implications for Asset Prices and Informational Efficiency," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 524, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    24. 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.
    25. Yue Xu, 2022. "Reallocation of Mutual Fund Managers and Capital Raising Ability," CREATES Research Papers 2022-11, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Portfolio manager compensation; Mutual fund performance; Financial sector income;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G00 - Financial Economics - - General - - - General
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J33 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Compensation Packages; Payment Methods
    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations

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