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Economic implications of passive investing

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Abstract

Index funds have grown significantly in recent years in most of the developed markets as investors have become less satisfied with the performance of active managers. Further, the flow of funds to passive investing has been supplemented by a high level of quasi-indexing undertaken by numerous active managers fuelled by their perception that they have to strictly control their tracking error relative to their given benchmark. The focus of this paper is on the economic implications of this major swing to passive investing. In particular, the paper highlights that (1) the assumed constraints on the growth in passive investing envisaged by writers such as Lorie and Hamilton (1973) is never likely to come into play; and (2) a high level of passive investing is likely to contribute to excessive and wasteful investment which results in lower economic growth and investor returns. This all suggests that although a heavy reliance on passive investing might appear rational for investors, it may well prove not only to be to their economic detriment but also that of the national economy.

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  • Paul Woolley & Ron Bird, 2003. "Economic implications of passive investing," Published Paper Series 2003-2, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney.
    • Handle: RePEc:uts:ppaper:2003-2
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    File URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/palgrave.jam.2240084
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    Cited by:

    1. Jezek, M., 2009. "Passive Investors, Active Traders and Strategic Delegation of Price Discovery," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0951, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    2. Carmine De Franco, 2021. "Stock picking in the US market and the effect of passive investments," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(1), pages 1-10, February.
    3. Richard Heaney & Terry Hallahan & Thomas Josev & Heather Mitchell, 2007. "Time-Changing Alpha? The Case of Australian International Mutual Funds," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 32(1), pages 95-112, June.
    4. Ron Bird & Lorenzo Casavecchia & Paul Woolley, 2008. "Insights into the Market Impact of Different Investment Styles," Working Paper Series 1, The Paul Woolley Centre for Capital Market Dysfunctionality, University of Technology, Sydney.
    5. Amir Rezaee, 2006. "La mesure de performance de la gestion indicielle française," Working Papers halshs-00008393, HAL.
    6. Martin Gold, 2010. "Fiduciary Finance," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13813.
    7. Ailie Charteris & Conrad Alexander Steyn, 2023. "The Bank of Japan’s exchange traded fund purchases: a help or hindrance to market efficiency?," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(3), pages 225-240, May.
    8. Liu, Hongda & Wu, Wangqiang & Yao, Pinbo, 2022. "A study on the efficiency of pediatric healthcare services and its influencing factors in China ——estimation of a three-stage DEA model based on provincial-level data," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    9. Damir Tokic, 2012. "The passive investor puzzle," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 13(2), pages 141-154, April.

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