Performance of Canadian hybrid mutual funds

The risk-adjusted selectivity performance (alphas) of a comprehensive and survivorship-free sample of Canadian hybrid funds after (before) management-related costs is negative (neutral) and deteriorates when we control for fixed-income exposures and not for conditioning information. Fund performance is positively related with the asset allocation to Canadian Equity and with whether the fund family’s orientation is tilted more to equity or bond funds. Examination of funds in the tails of the performance distribution using the block-bootstrap method suggests that “good luck” explains the before and after costs outperformance of extreme right-tail funds and no fund possesses truly superior management skills.     

Fee waivers for tax-exempt money market mutual funds

In this study we investigate why tax-exempt money market mutual funds often waive fees. Contrary to statements in the popular press, our results provide weak evidence that fee waivers lead to asset growth. We find strong evidence, however, that fee waivers are used to keep the fund’s reported yield in line with competitors. We find that funds have comparable before-expense yields and that smaller funds generally have higher expenses. If all expenses were charged to investors, then smaller funds would significantly underperform larger funds. Thus, in order to keep reported yields in line with competitors, smaller funds must waive a significant portion of fees.(JEL G20, G21)     

Performance measurement and best-practice benchmarking of mutual funds: combining stochastic dominance criteria with data envelopment analysis

We propose a method for mutual fund performance measurement and best-practice benchmarking, which endogenously identifies a dominating benchmark portfolio for each evaluated mutual fund. Dominating benchmarks provide information about efficiency improvement potential as well as portfolio strategies for achieving them. Portfolio diversification possibilities are accounts for by using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Portfolio risk is accounted for in terms of the full return distribution by utilizing Stochastic Dominance (SD) criteria. The approach is illustrated by an application to US based environmentally responsible mutual funds.     

Investigating a new methodology for ranking international mutual funds

This paper tests the hypothesis that a composite forecast is, at times, more accurate than separate forecasts. The rationale for forecast superiority is that valuable information missing from one model may be captured by the other model. The expected asset returns from the traditional CAPM and the mean-lower partial moment CAPM have been combined to generate a composite systematic risk measure. The measure is then used in Treynor's performance index and tested on a sample of U.S.-based international mutual funds. The results show that the composite beta is a statistically significant and meaningful parameter. However due to sample size, the Wilcoxon signed rank test fails to provide strong evidence that there is a significant difference between Treynor's fund rankings when using the two different asset-pricing models.     

The role of mutual funds in the sustainable energy sector

The integration of renewable energy criteria in mutual fund investment decisions could channel private resources into the funding of environmentally related projects implemented by firms contributing to sustainable development. This paper examines the performance of European renewable energy funds that invest globally by comparing their risk‐adjusted returns with those achieved by black energy and conventional mutual funds. It uses Carhart's model on a sample of 81 renewable energy funds, 125 black energy funds, and 4,337 conventional mutual funds. The results indicate that 32.1% of renewable mutual funds—most of which adopt energy producers, renewable energy technology, and energy efficiency‐focused criteria—perform significantly better than the S&P Clean Energy market benchmark, this percentage being affected by the different states of the economy. However, none of them are able to beat the fossil fuel energy (S&P Global 1200 Energy Index) or conventional market benchmarks (S&P Global 1200 Index). Furthermore, 37.04% of renewable energy funds significantly underperform the S&P Global 1200 benchmark. Therefore, the investment in renewable energy funds has a financial cost for investors in relation to conventional fund investors.     

On the robustness of persistence in mutual fund performance

This paper analyzes persistence in US equity mutual fund performance over the period 1990–2015. We apply commonly used measures of persistence, which we test using a set of simulated passive funds. In the first stage we apply contingency tables and transition matrices in accordance with previous literature. Results show how these methodologies are biased towards finding evidence of persistence too easily. In the second stage, we take a recursive portfolio approach, which assesses the performance of investing by following recommendations based on past performance. Results show the importance of both estimating persistence by distinguishing among fund style groups, and considering the cross-sectional significance of recursive portfolios. In general, our results support evidence of persistence in mutual fund performance, especially for the case of the best mutual funds. However, this evidence does not hold for the most recent subperiod, 2008–2015. Empirical evidence of persistence is conditioned by the sample period, a result that could explain the inconclusive results found in the literature.     

A nonparametric approach to market timing: evidence from Spanish mutual funds

The measuring of market timing abilities in investment portfolios is a relevant and widely analyzed question. Since the traditional parametric methodology can lead to biased results, we apply the nonparametric approach trying to overcome these biases and compare the results obtained by both methods. This comparison can help the readers to understand the role played by the assumptions behind each approach. We confirm the finding previously found in the literature about negative market timing abilities of Spanish equity fund managers. This finding suggests that neither the documented specification problems of the traditional models (heteroskedasticity, outliers and non-normality in financial data) nor the aggressiveness of some misinformed managers explain the poor timing abilities of managers.     

Agent-based model generating stylized facts of fixed income markets

Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination - We develop an agent-based model (ABM) of a financial market with multiple assets belonging either to the fixed income or equity asset classes. The...     

Forecasting bond yields in the Brazilian fixed income market

This paper studies the predictive ability of a variety of models in forecasting the yield curve for the Brazilian fixed income market. We compare affine term structure models with a variation of the Nelson–Siegel exponential framework developed by Diebold and Li [Diebold, F., & Li, C. (2006). Forecasting the Term Structure of Government Yields. Journal of Econometrics, 130, 337–364]. Empirical results suggest that forecasts made with the latter methodology are superior, and appear to be more accurate at long horizons than other different benchmark forecasts. These results are important for policy-makers, as well as for portfolio and risk managers. Further research could study the predictive ability of such models in other emerging markets.     

Looking for sustainable development: Socially responsible mutual funds and the low-carbon economy

Sustainable investment responds to demands for carbon and climate-neutral societies. To address the urgency around climate change and provide investors with more qualified information, Morningstar has developed the Low Carbon Designation (LCD) to indicate that the companies held in a portfolio are in general alignment with the transition to a low-carbon economy. The designation is given to portfolios that have low carbon risk and fossil fuel exposure scores. The present study builds on the LCD by examining the relationship between these scores and financial performance. With this aim, we analyze 3920 socially responsible mutual funds from across the world. Results show differences in financial performance according to scores and investment areas. We find evidence that funds considered to have higher levels of sustainability achieved better performance than funds with higher exposure to companies involved in carbon and fossil fuel industries. We provide insights on the informativeness of these new scores with a focus on climate change and their relevance in helping investors to identify climate-aware funds. This study highlights the importance of introducing strategies to develop green finance; the analysis confirms that sustainability improves performance. Finally, the LCD indicator is shown to be relevant for making fairer comparisons among socially responsible funds and, ultimately, for developing low-carbon economies.     

Recent evidence on the short-term and long-term performance persistence of emerging-market mutual fund returns

This paper analyzes the performance persistence of US-based emerging-market mutual funds. We use a sample of 275 actively managed funds between July 1989 and December 2020 and regress their returns on emerging-market benchmark portfolios. On average, the funds had a significant negative alpha. Contrary to some earlier evidence, we document that the short-term consistency is entirely driven by losses of underperforming funds. The return spread between the short-term winners and losers generates a significant positive alpha that can be fully explained by the momentum in emerging-market stocks. We find no evidence of any long-term regularities. Our findings show that the observed funds exhibit very similar behavior to their developed-market counterparts and may contribute to resolving some inconsistencies in the earlier results.     

The information content of funds from operations and net income in real estate investment trusts

This study compares the information content of funds from operations (FFO) and net income (NI) in the real estate investment trust (REIT) industry. We find that models using FFO explain more of the variance in cumulative abnormal returns around earnings announcement dates than models using NI do. We also find that the information content of FFO differs across REITs of different sizes. FFO does not provide useful information to investors in the case of large REITs. Finally, we show that the gain or loss from sales of property is relevant to valuing large REITs.     

The effect of portfolio weighting on investment performance evaluation: The case of actively managed mutual funds

Among the factors influencing investment performance measurement is the weight dedicated to each security. This paper develops metrics for measuring the extent of equal weighting and value weighting of a portfolio. A sample of 506 actively managed mutual funds shows that funds tend to be equally weighted to a greater degree than they are value weighted, implying that investment performance based solely on a single value-weighted benchmark may not adequately identify excess performance. We propose a two-factor model utilizing both a value-weighted and an equally weighted index and show that the model provides a better fit than the single-index model.(JEL G1)     

浅析固定资产折旧的会计与税法差异及所得税处理

在企业所得税汇算清缴过程中,如何正确进行固定资产折旧的纳税调整及所得税会计处理,是每个企业必须注意的问题。本文分析了固定资产折旧的会计与税法差异产生的原因,以及在计算企业所得税时,如何对这些差异进行相关的纳税调整和所得税会计处理。     

浅析固定资产涉及新企业所得税业务及会计处理

文章结合新会计准则及新企业所得税法,对新政策下固定资产主要涉及新企业所得税业务及会计处理进行了论述。     

Pricing behavior of exchange traded funds

We attempt to determine whether characteristics found to be effective indicators of individual stock price performance are effective indicators of exchange traded fund (ETF) price performance. Specifically, we test the performance of investing strategies based on separately categorizing ETFs into deciles according to size, trading volume, and momentum. When analyzing the entire sample, we find that the indicators can effectively signal differences in future performance. However, the indicators appear to be indirect proxies for the types of ETFs (broad-based, sector, or international). When we isolate each type of ETF, the indicators are not as effective. The indicators are not as useful for signaling unusual stock price performance of ETFs as they have been for individual stocks. We attribute the distinctly different results found here for ETFs to the unusual characteristics of ETFs that distinguish them from individual stocks. Investing strategies that rely on these indicators for selecting individual stocks may be indirectly driven by stock-specific fundamentals. However, fundamentals are not as meaningful for stock indexes (represented by ETFs) as for individual stocks.

巧算所得税中的递延所得税资产(负债)

文章介绍一种计算递延所得税资产的简便算法,从演变所得税的计算公式入手,通过分析递延所得税资产(负债)对本期和未来所得税影响的关系,推算所得税中递延所得税资产和递延所得税负债。     

提高低收入者收入 逐步缩小收入差距

提高低收入者收入水平,逐步缩小收入分配差距,是统筹社会与经济协调发展的重要内容.     

Hedge funds in portfolios of risk-averse investors

We find that adding a hedge fund to an optimally weighted portfolio of stocks and T-bills generally increases the utility of an investor. From a sample of hedge funds with returns from 1996 to 2005, the certainty equivalent was an average of five basis points (monthly) higher with a ten percent allocation into a hedge fund. Funds from different style categories require different allocations into the stock market, but nearly all funds improved performance. Contrary to popular opinion, we find that highly risk-averse investors gain even more than less risk-averse investors by adding a hedge fund into their portfolio.