IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfinec/v122y2016i3p607-624.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Limited attention, marital events and hedge funds

Author

Listed:
  • Lu, Yan
  • Ray, Sugata
  • Teo, Melvyn

Abstract

We explore the impact of limited attention by analyzing the performance of hedge fund managers who are distracted by marital events. We find that marriages and divorces are associated with significantly lower fund alpha, during the six-month period surrounding and the two-year period after the event. Busy managers who manage multiple funds and who are not part of a team are more affected by marital transitions. Inattentive managers place fewer active bets relative to their style peers, load more on index stocks, exhibit higher R-squareds with respect to systematic factors, and are more prone to the disposition effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Lu, Yan & Ray, Sugata & Teo, Melvyn, 2016. "Limited attention, marital events and hedge funds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(3), pages 607-624.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfinec:v:122:y:2016:i:3:p:607-624
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2016.09.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304405X16301556
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jfineco.2016.09.004?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mark Mitchell & Todd Pulvino, 2001. "Characteristics of Risk and Return in Risk Arbitrage," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(6), pages 2135-2175, December.
    2. Betsey Stevenson, 2007. "The Impact of Divorce Laws on Marriage-Specific Capital," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 25(1), pages 75-94.
    3. Sadka, Ronnie, 2010. "Liquidity risk and the cross-section of hedge-fund returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 54-71, October.
    4. K. J. Martijn Cremers & Antti Petajisto, 2009. "How Active Is Your Fund Manager? A New Measure That Predicts Performance," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(9), pages 3329-3365, September.
    5. Adam Isen & Betsey Stevenson, 2010. "Women's Education and Family Behavior: Trends in Marriage, Divorce and Fertility," NBER Chapters, in: Demography and the Economy, pages 107-140, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Pastor, Lubos & Stambaugh, Robert F., 2003. "Liquidity Risk and Expected Stock Returns," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(3), pages 642-685, June.
    7. Martijn Cremers & Antti Petajisto, 2006. "How Active is Your Fund Manager? A New Measure That Predicts Performance," Yale School of Management Working Papers amz2370, Yale School of Management, revised 01 May 2009.
    8. Terrance Odean, 1998. "Are Investors Reluctant to Realize Their Losses?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 53(5), pages 1775-1798, October.
    9. Jonathan B. Berk & Richard C. Green, 2004. "Mutual Fund Flows and Performance in Rational Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(6), pages 1269-1295, December.
    10. Vikas Agarwal & Wei Jiang & Yuehua Tang & Baozhong Yang, 2013. "Uncovering Hedge Fund Skill from the Portfolio Holdings They Hide," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(2), pages 739-783, April.
    11. Teo, Melvyn, 2011. "The liquidity risk of liquid hedge funds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(1), pages 24-44, April.
    12. Ravi Jagannathan & Alexey Malakhov & Dmitry Novikov, 2010. "Do Hot Hands Exist among Hedge Fund Managers? An Empirical Evaluation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(1), pages 217-255, February.
    13. Agarwal, Vikas & Daniel, Naveen D. & Naik, Narayan Y., 2009. "Role of managerial incentives and discretion in hedge fund performance," CFR Working Papers 04-04, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    14. Peng, Lin & Xiong, Wei, 2006. "Investor attention, overconfidence and category learning," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 563-602, June.
    15. David A. Love, 2010. "The Effects of Marital Status and Children on Savings and Portfolio Choice," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(1), pages 385-432, January.
    16. Lauren Cohen & Andrea Frazzini, 2008. "Economic Links and Predictable Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(4), pages 1977-2011, August.
    17. Aragon, George O., 2007. "Share restrictions and asset pricing: Evidence from the hedge fund industry," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 33-58, January.
    18. John M. Griffin & Jin Xu, 2009. "How Smart Are the Smart Guys? A Unique View from Hedge Fund Stock Holdings," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(7), pages 2331-2370, July.
    19. Nicolas P.B. Bollen & Veronika K. Pool, 2009. "Do Hedge Fund Managers Misreport Returns? Evidence from the Pooled Distribution," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(5), pages 2257-2288, October.
    20. Sheridan Titman & Cristian Tiu, 2011. "Do the Best Hedge Funds Hedge?," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(1), pages 123-168.
    21. Teo, Melvyn & Woo, Sung-Jun, 2004. "Style effects in the cross-section of stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 367-398, November.
    22. Stefano Dellavigna & Joshua M. Pollet, 2009. "Investor Inattention and Friday Earnings Announcements," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(2), pages 709-749, April.
    23. Sanders Korenman & David Neumark, 1991. "Does Marriage Really Make Men More Productive?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 26(2), pages 282-307.
    24. Kerwin Kofi Charles & Melvin Stephens, 2004. "Job Displacement, Disability, and Divorce," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 22(2), pages 489-522, April.
    25. Nikolai Roussanov & Pavel Savor, 2014. "Marriage and Managers' Attitudes to Risk," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(10), pages 2496-2508, October.
    26. David Hirshleifer & Sonya Seongyeon Lim & Siew Hong Teoh, 2009. "Driven to Distraction: Extraneous Events and Underreaction to Earnings News," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(5), pages 2289-2325, October.
    27. Aragon, George O. & Strahan, Philip E., 2012. "Hedge funds as liquidity providers: Evidence from the Lehman bankruptcy," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(3), pages 570-587.
    28. Getmansky, Mila & Lo, Andrew W. & Makarov, Igor, 2004. "An econometric model of serial correlation and illiquidity in hedge fund returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(3), pages 529-609, December.
    29. Brown, Stephen J & Goetzmann, William N & Ibbotson, Roger G, 1999. "Offshore Hedge Funds: Survival and Performance, 1989-95," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 72(1), pages 91-117, January.
    30. Bollen, Nicolas P. B. & Pool, Veronika K., 2008. "Conditional Return Smoothing in the Hedge Fund Industry," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(2), pages 267-298, June.
    31. Vikas Agarwal, 2004. "Risks and Portfolio Decisions Involving Hedge Funds," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 17(1), pages 63-98.
    32. Vikas Agarwal & Naveen D. Daniel & Narayan Y. Naik, 2009. "Role of Managerial Incentives and Discretion in Hedge Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(5), pages 2221-2256, October.
    33. Kai Li, 2014. "Asset Price Dynamics with Heterogeneous Beliefs and Time Delays," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 13, July-Dece.
    34. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    35. Marcin Kacperczyk & Clemens Sialm & Lu Zheng, 2005. "On the Industry Concentration of Actively Managed Equity Mutual Funds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(4), pages 1983-2011, August.
    36. Francesca Cornaglia & Naomi E. Feldman, 2011. "Productivity, Wages and Marriage: The Case of Major League Baseball," CEP Discussion Papers dp1081, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    37. Agarwal, Vikas & Naik, Narayan Y., 2000. "Multi-Period Performance Persistence Analysis of Hedge Funds," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(3), pages 327-342, September.
    38. Brad M. Barber & Terrance Odean, 2008. "All That Glitters: The Effect of Attention and News on the Buying Behavior of Individual and Institutional Investors," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(2), pages 785-818, April.
    39. Becker, Gary S, 1973. "A Theory of Marriage: Part I," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(4), pages 813-846, July-Aug..
    40. Barberis, Nicholas & Shleifer, Andrei, 2003. "Style investing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 161-199, May.
    41. Aggarwal, Rajesh K. & Jorion, Philippe, 2010. "The performance of emerging hedge funds and managers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 238-256, May.
    42. Fung, William & Hsieh, David A, 2001. "The Risk in Hedge Fund Strategies: Theory and Evidence from Trend Followers," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 14(2), pages 313-341.
    43. Yermack, David, 2014. "Tailspotting: Identifying and profiting from CEO vacation trips," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(2), pages 252-269.
    44. Kosowski, Robert & Naik, Narayan Y. & Teo, Melvyn, 2007. "Do hedge funds deliver alpha? A Bayesian and bootstrap analysis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 229-264, April.
    45. Avramov, Doron & Kosowski, Robert & Naik, Narayan Y. & Teo, Melvyn, 2011. "Hedge funds, managerial skill, and macroeconomic variables," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(3), pages 672-692, March.
    46. Melvyn Teo, 2009. "The Geography of Hedge Funds," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(9), pages 3531-3561, September.
    47. Stefano DellaVigna & Joshua M. Pollet, 2007. "Demographics and Industry Returns," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(5), pages 1667-1702, December.
    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. Cici, Gjergji & Schuster, Philipp & Weishaupt, Franziska, 2024. "Once a trader, always a trader: The role of traders in fund management," CFR Working Papers 24-01, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    2. Zhu, Zhaobo & Sun, Licheng & Yung, Kenneth & Chen, Min, 2020. "Limited investor attention, relative fundamental strength, and the cross-section of stock returns," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(4).
    3. Grant, Andrew & Kalev, Petko S. & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar & Joakim Westerholm, P., 2022. "Retail trading activity and major lifecycle events: The case of divorce," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    4. Cakici, Nusret & Zaremba, Adam, 2021. "Who should be afraid of infections? Pandemic exposure and the cross-section of stock returns," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    5. Linnenluecke, Martina K. & Chen, Xiaoyan & Ling, Xin & Smith, Tom & Zhu, Yushu, 2017. "Research in finance: A review of influential publications and a research agenda," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 188-199.
    6. Dierick, Nicolas & Heyman, Dries & Inghelbrecht, Koen & Stieperaere, Hannes, 2019. "Financial attention and the disposition effect," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 190-217.
    7. Gennaro Bernile & Vineet Bhagwat & Ambrus Kecskés & Phuong‐Anh Nguyen, 2021. "Are the risk attitudes of professional investors affected by personal catastrophic experiences?," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 50(2), pages 455-486, June.
    8. Agarwal, Vikas & Cochardt, Alexander Elmar & Orlov, Vitaly, 2022. "Birth order and fund manager's trading behavior: Role of sibling rivalry," CFR Working Papers 22-12, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    9. Schwartz-Ziv, Miriam & Wermers, Russ, 2022. "Do institutional investors monitor their large-scale vs. small-scale investments differently? Evidence from the say-on-pay vote," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    10. Sara Ain Tommar & Olga Kolokolova & Roberto Mura, 2022. "When Paid Work Gives in to Unpaid Care Work: Evidence from the Hedge Fund Industry Under COVID-19," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(8), pages 6250-6267, August.
    11. Neyland, Jordan, 2020. "Love or money: The effect of CEO divorce on firm risk and compensation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    12. Cheng Xiang & Fengwen Chen & Paul Jones & Senmao Xia, 2021. "The effect of institutional investors’ distraction on firms’ corporate social responsibility engagement: evidence from China," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(6), pages 1645-1681, August.
    13. Lu, Yan & Mortal, Sandra & Ray, Sugata, 2022. "Hedge fund hold ’em," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    14. Bai, John (Jianqiu) & Ma, Linlin & Mullally, Kevin A. & Solomon, David H., 2019. "What a difference a (birth) month makes: The relative age effect and fund manager performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(1), pages 200-221.
    15. Hossain, Md Noman & Rabarison, Monika K. & Ater, Brandon & Sobngwi, Christian K., 2023. "CEO marital status and dividend policy," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    16. Amore, Mario Daniele & Miller, Danny & Le Breton-Miller, Isabelle & Corbetta, Guido, 2017. "For love and money: Marital leadership in family firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 461-476.
    17. Lee, Kangsan & Jeong, Daeyoung, 2023. "Too much is too bad: The effect of media coverage on the price volatility of cryptocurrencies," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    18. DeVault, Luke & Sias, Richard, 2017. "Hedge fund politics and portfolios," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 80-97.
    19. Sun, Lin & Teo, Melvyn, 2019. "Public hedge funds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(1), pages 44-60.
    20. Davide Carpentiere & Angelo Petralia, 2023. "Identification of consideration sets from choice data," Papers 2302.00978, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2024.
    21. Gilje, Erik P. & Gormley, Todd A. & Levit, Doron, 2020. "Who's paying attention? Measuring common ownership and its impact on managerial incentives," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(1), pages 152-178.
    22. David C. Ling & Yan Lu & Sugata Ray, 2021. "How do Personal Real Estate Transactions Affect Productivity and Risk Taking? Evidence from Professional Asset Managers," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 49(S1), pages 7-40, March.
    23. Li, Lu & Li, Yang & Wang, Xueding & He, Yuqian, 2021. "Limited attention, managerial multitasking, and hedge fund performance in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).

    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. Andrew W. Lo & Mila Getmansky & Peter A. Lee, 2015. "Hedge Funds: A Dynamic Industry in Transition," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 7(1), pages 483-577, December.
    2. Chen, Honghui & Kumar, Alok & Lu, Yan & Singh, Ajai, 2022. "Do Hedge Fund Managers Understand Politics? Political Sensitivity and Investment Skill," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    3. Vikas Agarwal & Stefan Ruenzi & Florian Weigert, 2018. "Unobserved Performance of Hedge Funds," Working Papers on Finance 1825, University of St. Gallen, School of Finance.
    4. Agarwal, Vikas & Green, Tracy Clifton & Ren, Honglin, 2017. "Alpha or beta in the eye of the beholder: What drives hedge fund flows?," CFR Working Papers 15-08, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR), revised 2017.
    5. Agarwal, Vikas & Green, T. Clifton & Ren, Honglin, 2018. "Alpha or beta in the eye of the beholder: What drives hedge fund flows?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(3), pages 417-434.
    6. Agarwal, Vikas & Ruenzi, Stefan & Weigert, Florian, 2017. "Tail risk in hedge funds: A unique view from portfolio holdings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(3), pages 610-636.
    7. Turan G. Bali & Florian Weigert, 2018. "Have Hedge Funds Solved the Idiosyncratic Volatility Puzzle?," Working Papers on Finance 1827, University of St. Gallen, School of Finance.
    8. Benoît Dewaele, 2013. "Portfolio Optimization for Hedge Funds through Time-Varying Coefficients," Working Papers CEB 13-032, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    9. Sun, Lin & Teo, Melvyn, 2019. "Public hedge funds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(1), pages 44-60.
    10. Teo, Melvyn, 2011. "The liquidity risk of liquid hedge funds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(1), pages 24-44, April.
    11. Benoît Dewaele, 2013. "Leverage and Alpha: The Case of Funds of Hedge Funds," Working Papers CEB 13-033, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    12. Hwang, Inchang & Xu, Simon & In, Francis & Kim, Tong Suk, 2017. "Systemic risk and cross-sectional hedge fund returns," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 109-130.
    13. Wilkens, Marco & Yao, Juan & Jeyasreedharan, Nagaratnam & Oehler, Patrick, 2013. "Measuring the performance of hedge funds using two-stage peer group benchmarks," Working Papers 2013-18, University of Tasmania, Tasmanian School of Business and Economics, revised 01 Jun 2013.
    14. Gao, Meng & Huang, Jiekun, 2016. "Capitalizing on Capitol Hill: Informed trading by hedge fund managers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(3), pages 521-545.
    15. Bali, Turan G. & Weigert, Florian, 2021. "Hedge funds and the positive idiosyncratic volatility effect," CFR Working Papers 21-01, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    16. William Fung & David Hsieh & Narayan Naik & Melvyn Teo, 2021. "Hedge Fund Franchises," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(2), pages 1199-1226, February.
    17. Hao Liang & Lin Sun & Melvyn Teo, 2022. "Responsible Hedge Funds [Role of managerial incentives and discretion in hedge fund performance]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 26(6), pages 1585-1633.
    18. Canepa, Alessandra & de la O. González, María & Skinner, Frank S., 2020. "Hedge fund strategies: A non-parametric analysis," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    19. Hany A. Shawky & Ying Wang, 2017. "Can Liquidity Risk Explain Diseconomies of Scale in Hedge Funds?," Quarterly Journal of Finance (QJF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 7(02), pages 1-35, June.
    20. Bali, Turan G. & Brown, Stephen J. & Caglayan, Mustafa Onur, 2012. "Systematic risk and the cross section of hedge fund returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(1), pages 114-131.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Hedge funds; Limited attention; Marriage; Divorce; Disposition effect;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors

    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:jfinec:v:122:y:2016:i:3:p:607-624. 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/inca/505576 .

    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.