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Unobserved Actions of Mutual Funds

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Author Info
Marcin Kacperczyk
Clemens Sialm
Lu Zheng

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Abstract

Despite extensive disclosure requirements, mutual fund investors do not observe all actions of fund managers. We estimate the impact of unobserved actions on fund returns using the return gap, which is defined as the difference between the reported fund return and the return of a portfolio that invests in the previously disclosed holdings after adjusting for expenses. Analyzing monthly return data on more than 2,500 unique U.S. equity funds over the period 1984-2003, we document a substantial cross-sectional heterogeneity and time-series persistence in the return gap, thus demonstrating that unobserved actions of some funds persistently create value, while such actions of others destroy value. Most important, we show that the return gap helps to predict future fund performance and conclude that fund investors should use the return gap as an additional measure to evaluate the performance of mutual funds.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 11766.

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Date of creation: Nov 2005
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11766

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G1 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets
G2 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Zhi Da & Pengjie Gao & Ravi Jagannathan, 2007. "When Does a Mutual Fund's Trade Reveal its Skill?," NBER Working Papers 13625, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Clemens Sialm & Laura Starks, 2009. "Mutual Fund Tax Clienteles," NBER Working Papers 15327, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Vincent Glode & Burton Hollifield & Marcin Kacperczyk & Shimon Kogan, 2009. "Is Investor Rationality Time Varying? Evidence from the Mutual Fund Industry," NBER Working Papers 15038, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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