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A comparison of corporate versus government bond funds

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  • George Comer
  • Javier Rodriguez

Abstract

We examine four separate classifications (high quality corporate, general corporate, government Treasury, and general government) of investment grade bond funds over the 1994–2009 period. We verify that distinct differences exist in investment styles across the classifications. We also document significant differences in performance as corporate funds outperform government funds by a risk adjusted average of 8 to 53 basis points on an annual basis depending on the model used. The performance differences are not strictly a function of expenses and are robust to alternative evaluation metrics. An examination of cash flows to the funds indicates that investment dollars are driven by the differences in risk adjusted performance. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2013

Suggested Citation

  • George Comer & Javier Rodriguez, 2013. "A comparison of corporate versus government bond funds," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 37(4), pages 495-510, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jecfin:v:37:y:2013:i:4:p:495-510
    DOI: 10.1007/s12197-011-9193-8
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Koo, Minjae & Muslu, Volkan, 2023. "Fund Flows and Asset Valuations of Bond Mutual Funds: Effect of Side-by-Side Management," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    2. Patel, Mayank & Madhavan, Vinodh & Gupta, Supratim Das & Kumar, Satish, 2023. "Performance persistence and style consistency of Indian fixed income mutual funds – A longitudinal study," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    3. Martin Rohleder & Hendrik Scholz & Marco Wilkens, 2018. "Success and failure on the corporate bond fund market," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(6), pages 429-443, October.
    4. Markus Natter & Martin Rohleder & Dominik Schulte & Marco Wilkens, 2017. "Bond mutual funds and complex investments," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 18(6), pages 433-456, October.
    5. Yong Chen & Nan Qin, 2017. "The Behavior of Investor Flows in Corporate Bond Mutual Funds," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(5), pages 1365-1384, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Fixed Income Funds; Portfolio Evaluation; Cash Flows; G20; G23;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors

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