| Abstract: | This paper develops a dynamic, stochastic growth system for money market fund families and tests how search behavior within this system affects fund family exit. The outcome of search behavior is measured as the time-varying parameters of the growth system, estimated by the Kalman filter. The results provide no evidence that the continuously updated coefficients influence the risk of failure. However, the cumulative amount of search generally affects exit positively, consistent with Hannan and Freeman's (1984) structural inertia theory. Founding conditions and money market fund performance are also important predictors of money market fund failure. These findings are discussed in the light of Bowman's (1963) theory of managerial coefficients and its applicability to simple industries like money market funds. The implications for future empirical studies on evolutionary growth systems are also discussed. |
