IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/eurjfi/v15y2009i3p287-316.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Conditional performance evaluation for German equity mutual funds

Author

Listed:
  • Wolfgang Bessler
  • Wolfgang Drobetz
  • Heinz Zimmermann

Abstract

We investigate the conditional performance of a sample of German equity mutual funds over the period from 1994 to 2003 using both the beta-pricing approach and the stochastic discount factor (SDF) framework. On average, mutual funds cannot generate excess returns relative to their benchmark that are large enough to cover their total expenses. Compared to unconditional alphas, fund performance sharply deteriorates when we measure conditional alphas. Given that stock returns are to some extent predictable based on publicly available information, conditional performance evaluation raises the benchmark for active fund managers because it gives them no credit for exploiting readily available information. Underperformance is more pronounced in the SDF framework than in beta-pricing models. The fund performance measures derived from alternative model specifications differ depending on the number of primitive assets taken to calibrate the SDF as well as the number of instrument variables used to scale assets and/or factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Wolfgang Bessler & Wolfgang Drobetz & Heinz Zimmermann, 2009. "Conditional performance evaluation for German equity mutual funds," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(3), pages 287-316.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:eurjfi:v:15:y:2009:i:3:p:287-316
    DOI: 10.1080/13518470802423445
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13518470802423445
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13518470802423445?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.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michael Busack & Wolfgang Drobetz & Jan Tille, 2017. "Can investors benefit from the performance of alternative UCITS funds?," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 31(1), pages 69-111, February.
    2. Martin Rohleder & Hendrik Scholz & Marco Wilkens, 2010. "Survivorship Bias and Mutual Fund Performance: Relevance, Significance, and Methodical Differences," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 15(2), pages 441-474.
    3. Jonas Gusset & Heinz Zimmermann, 2014. "Why not use SDF rather than beta models in performance measurement?," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 28(4), pages 307-336, November.
    4. Keith Cuthbertson & Simon Hayley & Dirk Nitzsche, 2016. "Market and Style Timing: German Equity and Bond Funds," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 22(4), pages 667-696, September.
    5. Sonal Babbar & Sanjay Sehgal, 2018. "Mutual Fund Characteristics and Investment Performance in India," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 43(1-2), pages 1-30, February.
    6. Cuthbertson, Keith & Nitzsche, Dirk, 2013. "Performance, stock selection and market timing of the German equity mutual fund industry," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 86-101.
    7. Mamatzakis, E & Babalos, Vassilios & filipas, n, 2013. "Fund Performance Evaluation in Greece Revisited: Evidence from the Impact of Operational Attributes," MPRA Paper 51640, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Benjamin Auer, 2011. "Can consumption-based asset pricing models explain the cross-section of investment funds returns?," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(17), pages 1273-1279.

    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:taf:eurjfi:v:15:y:2009:i:3:p:287-316. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/REJF20 .

    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.