Exchange‐Traded Fund Introductions and Closed‐End Fund Discounts and Volume

Exchange‐traded funds (ETFs), like closed‐end funds (CEFs), are managed portfolios traded like individual stocks. We hypothesize that the introduction of an ETF in an asset class similar to an existing CEF results in a substitution effect that reduces the value of the CEF's shares relative to that of its underlying assets. Our event studies show that upon the introduction of a similar ETF, CEF discounts widen significantly and relative volume declines significantly. Single‐equation and systems estimation models show that the widening in discounts and reduction in volume are related to returns‐based measures of the substitutability of ETFs for CEFs.     

Marketing Closed‐End Fund IPOs: An Analysis of the International Stock Funds

Various studies argue that underwriting fees are excessive and investment bankers prolong the price stabilization period in aftermarket trading of closed‐end fund (CEF) shares. The poor performance of these funds also raises questions about the financial sophistication of initial public offering (IPO) buyers. In this study, we examine these issues for a sample of international stock CEFs. Our findings indicate that underwriting fees are not excessive relative to industrial issues, and we do not find that investment bankers prolong the stabilization period to camouflage the underwriting cost. Our findings are consistent with earlier studies that discounts contribute significantly to the poor performance during the first six months of aftermarket trading.     

Price Performance Following Share‐Repurchase Announcements by Closed‐End Funds

We investigate the price performance of closed‐end funds that announce share‐repurchase programs. Closed‐end funds experience positive average stock‐price reactions to the announcements. The long‐run buy‐and‐hold abnormal returns of repurchasing funds over the subsequent three years are significantly higher than a nonrepurchasing control sample matched by size, type, investment style and geographic diversification. Funds with larger discounts, international funds, equity funds, and funds that announce larger repurchases or frequently announce repurchases, experience more positive stock‐price reactions. Except for larger repurchases, the same characteristics are associated with more positive long‐run buy‐and‐hold returns.     

The Impact of Corporate Governance on Closed‐end Funds

This study uses a large sample of UK‐listed closed‐end funds to examine whether governance has an impact on two indicators of fund performance: the level of fund‐management fees and the discount at which a fund trades. Fees are under the control of the directors, and we find that they are inversely related to fund returns, even after allowing for differences across investment sectors. Fees are, on average, higher if a fund has a large board, few directors from outside the fund‐family, many directors from within the fund‐family, and low ownership by the management company. Discounts for funds are wider if the management company or any blockholder has a significant long‐term stake, suggesting that investors are wary of entrenched management. The results suggest that boards are frequently compromised in their duty to shareholders by their dependence on fund‐management companies.     

What Can “Nine‐Eleven” Tell Us about Closed‐end Fund Discounts and Investor Sentiment?

We use the horrific events of September 11, 2001 (“nine‐eleven”) as a natural test of the hypothesis that closed‐end mutual fund discounts from fund net asset values reflect small investor sentiment. Because nine‐eleven was a sudden, unforeseen, and significantly negative and exogenous shock to the world, the capital markets, and investor sentiment, our test avoids many of the problems of extant studies. Discounts worsened dramatically following the event, and then recovered alongside the broader market. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that discounts reflect the sentiment of small investors, who took their cues from the broader market's overall movement.     

The Agency Effect of Repurchases on Closed‐End Funds

Share prices rise after companies announce repurchases, but there are differing views as to why this happens. Repurchases are announced by closed‐end funds when their discounts are widening (market‐to‐book is falling). The immediate post‐announcement effect is a small jump in a fund's share price, but the main effect occurs over the next four years during which time there is significant outperformance both of the fund's price and of its investment portfolio. Liquidity of the shares does not change. Repurchases, if executed, reduce the size of a fund and therefore the manager's fees. Our findings are consistent with directors using the threat of repurchases to discipline managers whose investment performance has been poor, leading to a closer alignment of pay and performance.     

Past Returns and Investment Trust Discounts

Abstract:   The relationship between past net asset value returns and the current discount on investment trusts is investigated. The relationship is weaker for the component that is common to all trusts in the same sector, and is significantly stronger for more liquid trusts. The time lag before returns have their full impact on discounts is consistent with the requirements of distinguishing 'skill' from noise. Although discounts vary widely even within the same sector, the range of variation appears to be consistent with an arbitrage equilibrium, in which the profits of exploiting apparent pricing anomalies are just insufficient to invite arbitrage trades.     

基金投资风格的极端性与业绩研究

本文首次从综合性视角考察基金投资风格的极端性与其业绩之间的关系。采用投资风格极端性指数和行业集中度作为投资风格的测度,研究发现投资风格的极端性与基金业绩成反比,即投资风格越极端,基金的收益越差。因此,我们建议基金经理在做出投资策略时,应当遵循稳健的投资风格与分散化投资,当发现自己的投资组合风险较大或有明显的行业偏重时,及时做出调整。对于风格极端的基金投资组合,应保持谨慎的态度。     

Closed-End Fund Expenses and Investment Selection

Investment returns on closed‐end funds are highly volatile. Because expenses have a definite negative impact on closed‐end fund returns, investors should include the expense ratio as a criterion for fund selection in addition to performance, investment objective, and risk of the fund. This paper constructs a model of the expense ratio of closed‐end funds to explain cross‐sectional differences in the expense ratios for the period between 1989–1996. We relate closed‐end fund expenses to fund characteristics and identify the factors that can help investors choose low expense closed‐end funds.     

封闭式基金折价与管理绩效的实证研究

本文基于管理绩效理论,对我国封闭式基金折价现象进行实证研究。管理绩效理论认为,封闭式基金折价反映了投资者对于基金未来过低的管理能力的理性预期,未来管理绩效越差,折价越大。本文使用了多种基金绩效度量模型,分别采用引入时间哑变量和除去时间均值混合OLS回归方法以及Fama-Macbeth横截面回归方法,验证了折价率和未来管理绩效之间的关系。结果显示,封闭式基金折价和溢价反映了市场对于基金未来管理绩效的预期;当期折价率和未来管理绩效之间存在显著的正向关系,尤其在未来一个季度的时间内;这种关系不受非同步性交易效应和基金异质性的影响。本文同时发现,折价率对于未来管理绩效的解释能力强于过去的管理绩效对于未来管理绩效的解释能力。     

Equity Fund Performance Persistence with Investment Style: Evidence from Korea

Using a comprehensive database on equity funds in Korea, we investigate the performance and performance persistence with investment style employing the Fama and French three-factor model and the Carhart four-factor model. The paper finds that most investment styles in Korea noticeably outperform the passive benchmarks. In addition, positive performance persistence is observed among funds investing in large-cap stocks and stocks of high past performance. Finally, outperformance and positive performance persistence of equity funds are still present in various ranking and postranking horizons. These empirical findings are in sharp contrast with results from earlier studies on markets in developed countries, such as the United States.     

证券投资基金的投资风格分析与比较

本文采用基于组合的风格分析方法,对6家中国基金管理公司所管理的30只股票型基金的投资风格进行了实证检验,发现这些股票型证券投资基金的投资风格特征都集中于大盘规模型和风格不一的价值、成长及平衡型,且同一基金管理公司所管理的基金在同一时点的投资风格有趋同现象;此外,还发现有些基金在契约合同中所公布的投资风格与实际检验出的投资风格不尽一致.     

The Performance of UK International Unit Trusts

We evaluate the performance of UK unit trusts with international equity objectives between January 1985 and December 2000 relative to domestic benchmark strategies. We use performance measures based on Jensen (1968) , Ferson and Schadt (1996) , and the Chen and Knez (1996) law of one price (LOP). We find more favourable trust performance using the Jensen and Ferson and Schadt measures relative to the LOP measure. There is evidence of inferior performance by some international trusts using the unconditional LOP measure. The charges and investment sector of the trust also has an impact on the performance of the trusts using the LOP measure.     

Consistency of UK Pension Fund Investment Performance

Transition matrix techniques are used to relate the past and present performance of pension fund portfolios. In particular, funds are ranked to study the tendency of portfolios to remain in the same quartile of the ranking as they were in the previous period. For raw returns, funds in both of the top quartiles are found to be more likely to remain in the same quartile than would be expected by chance. This result can be taken as limited evidence for the consistency of performance. Similar systemic effects are observed on a risk-adjusted basis. There appears to be clear evidence that some fund managers can offer a degree of consistent good performance.     

Ethical Unit Trust Financial Performance: Small Company Effects and Fund Size Effects

Recent papers which have examined unit trusts have controlled either for a 'fund size effect' or for the 'small firms effect' in the investment portfolio. The contribution of this paper is an analysis of the 'small firms effect' whilst simultaneously controlling for the 'fund size effect'. We show that the ethical unit trusts have significantly greater exposure than general unit trusts to the 'small firms effect', and that net of this there is no significant evidence of over or under performance by ethical trusts using an adjusted Jensen measure. Using two cross-sectional approaches, we demonstrate that whilst a 'small firms effect' has a role to play in explaining unit trust performance, fund size is not correlated with the financial performance of unit trusts. This cross-sectional analysis also provides some evidence that ethical unit trusts may perform less well than general unit trusts.     

Investor Recognition and Post‐Acquisition Performance of Acquirers

The literature has documented a negative relation between investor recognition and expected returns. This negative relation is consistent with the prediction in Merton (1987, Journal of Finance 42, 483–510). This paper investigates whether the changes in investor recognition of acquirers around the time of the acquisitions can explain the post‐acquisition underperformance of acquirer stocks. Using a large sample of U.S. acquisitions from 1980 to 2010, this paper finds that investor recognition, proxied by the number of institutional investors and the number of common shareholders, increases significantly during acquisitions. Once the increases in investor recognition are controlled for, the “puzzling” long‐run underperformances of acquirers disappears.     

On the Stability of the Cross‐Section of Expected Stock Returns in the Cross‐Section: Understanding the Curious Role of Share Turnover

In this paper, we shed further light on cross‐sectional predictors of stock return performance. Specifically, we explore whether the cross‐section of expected stock returns is robust within stock groups sorted by past monthly return. We find that the book/market and momentum effects are remarkably robust to sorting on past returns. However, share turnover is negatively related to future returns for stocks with abnormally low stock price performance in the recent past, but postively related to returns for well‐performing stocks. This casts doubt on the use of turnover as a liquidity proxy, but is consistent with turnover being a proxy for momentum trading which pushes prices in the direction of past price movements. Our results are robust to both NYSE/AMEX and Nasdaq stocks, and also robust to stratifying the sample by time period.     

Regime Shifts in Price‐Dividend Ratios and Expected Stock Returns: A Present‐Value Approach

We incorporate regime shifts in the mean of price‐dividend ratios into the present value model of van Binsbergen and Koijen (2010) who propose a latent variable approach to modeling expected returns and dividend growth rates. We find that accounting for regime shifts results in much lower persistence of expected returns and higher volatility of expected returns, and thus higher in‐sample predictability, when compared to the results from the van Binsbergen and Koijen (2010) model. We also show that the main source of the increase in the mean of price‐dividend ratios in the mid‐1990s is a decrease in the mean of expected returns.     

证券投资基金风格、投资行为与股票市场波动

本文研究了我国不同投资风格的证券投资基金投资行为和股票市场波动之间的相互关系，对于正确认识投资基金的作用以及发展机构投资者的政策取向具有重要意义。实证结果显示，证券投资基金股票投资行为在一定程度上引起了股票市场的波动，可以部分平抑市场下跌时的波动风险，同时加剧了市场上涨时的市场波动。成长型基金对股市波动的影响较大，而平衡型基金具有降低股市波动的作用。     

国外养老基金投资规则与绩效的比较

由于政治和人口老龄化对传统的现收现付体制带来的财政压力，养老基金制度改革已经成为一个全球性课题。在一些国家，由于对部分或全部基金型养老基金投资限制的改革，不仅使养老基金行业受益，而且对资本市场发展也产生了积极的影响。本文通过对不同投资监管制度下养老基金投资绩效差异和对资本市场不同影响的分析，探讨中国养老基金投资监管制度的改革方向和政策选择。