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Procyclical asset management and bond risk premia

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  • Barbu, Alexandru
  • Fricke, Christoph
  • Mönch, Emanuel

Abstract

Institutional funds have concentrated ownership by a few institutional investors, infrequent outflows and essentially no leverage. Yet using unique granular data on the bond holdings of institutional funds, we show that their trading behavior is strongly procyclical: they actively move into higher yielding, longer duration and lower rated securities in response to lower in-terest rates, and vice versa. Institutional funds' risk-taking increases when interest rates turn negative, particularly in funds with explicit minimum return guarantees. Their trading has large and persistent price impact. We provide evidence that this procyclical behavior is driven by career concerns among institutional fund managers.

Suggested Citation

  • Barbu, Alexandru & Fricke, Christoph & Mönch, Emanuel, 2020. "Procyclical asset management and bond risk premia," Discussion Papers 38/2020, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:bubdps:382020
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    Cited by:

    1. Fricke, Daniel, 2021. "Synthetic leverage and fund risk-taking," Discussion Papers 09/2021, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    2. Leonardo Quero Virla, 2023. "An empirical characterization of volatility in the German stock market," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(7), pages 1-19, July.
    3. Ryan, Ellen, 2022. "Are fund managers rewarded for taking cyclical risks?," Working Paper Series 2652, European Central Bank.
    4. Ryan, Ellen, 2022. "Are fund managers rewarded for taking cyclical risks?," ESRB Working Paper Series 134, European Systemic Risk Board.
    5. Virla, Leonardo Quero, 2021. "An empirical characterization of volatility dynamics in the DAX," IPE Working Papers 167/2021, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    institutional funds; institutional accounts; procyclical asset management; portfolio rebalancing; price impact; demand pressures; asset price volatility; career concerns;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • E43 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects

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