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Leveling the playing field? The effect of disclosing fund manager activeness to individual investors

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  • Scheld, Dominik
  • Stolper, Oscar

Abstract

As of April 2018, several of the largest U.S. mutual fund firms have been imposed to disclose a measure of fund manager activeness to retail investors. We evaluate the effectiveness of this intervention. We find that, even for those funds with a large overlap of holdings with the benchmark, no measurable effort to increase management activeness can be observed subsequent to the imposed disclosure. By contrast, investors strongly respond to the intervention. However, an analysis of investor reaction suggests that they do not rationally trade on the newly available information. We discuss our results and propose potential disclosure improvements.

Suggested Citation

  • Scheld, Dominik & Stolper, Oscar, 2023. "Leveling the playing field? The effect of disclosing fund manager activeness to individual investors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:154:y:2023:i:c:s0378426623001218
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2023.106915
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mutual fund manager activeness; Investor protection; Disclosure effectiveness; Regulation; Retail finance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D18 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Protection
    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G41 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making in Financial Markets

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