Measuring skill in the mutual fund industry

Jonathan B. Berk and Jules van Binsbergen

Journal of Financial Economics, 2015, vol. 118, issue 1, 1-20

Abstract: Using the value that a mutual fund extracts from capital markets as the measure of skill, we find that the average mutual fund has used this skill to generate about $3.2 million per year. Large cross-sectional differences in skill persist for as long as ten years. Investors recognize this skill and reward it by investing more capital with better funds. Better funds earn higher aggregate fees, and a strong positive correlation exists between current compensation and future performance. The cross-sectional distribution of managerial skill is predominantly reflected in the cross-sectional distribution of fund size, not gross alpha.

Keywords: Mutual funds; Managerial skill; Alpha (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G11 G20 G23 J24 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (236)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Measuring Skill in the Mutual Fund Industry (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jfinec:v:118:y:2015:i:1:p:1-20

DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2015.05.002

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