Running From a Bear: How Poor Stock Market Performance Affects the Determinants of Mutual Fund Flows

Abstract:  Using a proprietary data set to study how past performance affects the determinants of mutual fund flows for a sample of load fund investors, I provide evidence that the determinants of fund flow depend on market conditions for both redemptions and purchases. Specifically, I show that, for redemptions, relative performance and risk adjusted performance are important determinants during a period of record flows into mutual funds. Conversely, during a period of poor performance, absolute performance becomes much more important and relative performance and risk adjusted performance become less important. For purchases, absolute performance, risk adjusted performance, and most relative performance measures become more important during the bear market.     

A comparative institutional analysis of agreements on product standards

The WTO and the EU have chosen two different agreements on product standards. While the WTO's approach is primarily based on a “National Treatment” (NT) principle, the EU's approach crucially relies on a principle of “Mutual Recognition” (MR). This paper offers a first look at the comparative performance of these two principles. We show that standards are imposed for levels of externalities that are too low under NT and too high under MR. This suggests that NT should be preferred to MR when the amount of trade in goods characterized by high levels of externalities is large.     

完善我国应急财政资金管理的途径

应急财政资金管理是我国建设应急管理体系的重要环节。当前我国的应急财政资金使用中存在常规资金规模偏小、筹集比例不合理、资金管理不完善、资金使用缺乏监督等问题。应从完善应急财政资金预算管理制度,拓宽筹资渠道,优化应急财政资金的拨付和使用程序,健全应急财政资金的监管制度等方面,完善我国应急财政管理。     

科研院所科研经费全过程管理模式研究

科研经费是支撑科研活动的重要物质保障,随着科技事业的不断发展,科研经费规模也持续扩大,但由于科研院所的经费管理方式与快速增长的科研经费不完全适应,使得科研经费使用中存在的问题逐渐显现出来。针对经费管理的预算、使用和结算等环节存在的问题,提出以制度为管理底线,以考核为规范上限,各部门人员沟通协助的全过程经费管理模式,以期为强化科研经费管理、规范经费使用提供借鉴。     

有限合伙制私募股权投资基金的内部治理

近几年,资本市场的需求使得我国私募股权投资基金呈现良好的发展势头,基于独特的组织形式制度优势,有限合伙制在我国私募股权投资基金领域得到更广泛的应用。但实践中,公司制法人作为有限合伙制私募股权投资基金的普通合伙人的常态化,可能会给其经营管理的运行带来消极影响。对于此类"组织形式有限合伙制、治理结构半公司制"的基金,本文将通过分析其内部构成,内部关系,发现其内部缺陷,从而提出激励和约束机制并存的治理方案。     

Foreign Institutional Ownership and the Global Convergence of Financial Reporting Practices

This paper investigates whether foreign institutional investors affect the global convergence of financial reporting practices. Using several measures of reporting convergence, we show that U.S. institutional ownership is positively associated with subsequent changes in emerging market firms’ accounting comparability to their U.S. industry peers. We identify this association using an instrumental variable approach that exploits exogenous variation in U.S. institutional investment generated by the JGTRRA Act of 2003. Further, we provide evidence of a specific mechanism—the switch to a Big Four audit firm—through which U.S. institutional investors affect reporting convergence. Finally, we show that, for emerging market firms, an increase in comparability to U.S. firms is associated with an improvement in the properties of foreign analysts’ forecasts.     

Performance of Foreign and Global Mutual Funds: The Role of Security Selection,Region‐Shifting,and Style‐Shifting Abilities

We examine the performance of U.S.‐based foreign and global funds after controlling for their regional and style exposure. We show that, on average, the total performance (TP) and security selection abilities of both foreign and global funds are significantly negative and exhibit short‐term predictability. Additionally, R² reflects funds’ security selection abilities, consistent with previous findings for domestic mutual funds. Investors can earn higher abnormal returns and TP in the short run by purchasing past winners with low R² than by purchasing past losers with high R². However, there is no evidence of predictability in the funds' region‐shifting and style‐shifting abilities.     

The Ethical Mutual Fund Performance Debate: New Evidence from Canada

Although the academic interest in ethical mutual fund performance has developed steadily, the evidence to date is mainly sample-specific. To tackle this critique, new research should extend to unexplored countries. Using this as a motivation, we examine the performance and risk sensitivities of Canadian ethical mutual funds vis-à-vis their conventional peers. In order to overcome the methodological deficiencies most prior papers suffered from, we use performance measurement approaches in the spirit of Carhart (1997, Journal of Finance 52(1): 57–82) and Ferson and Schadt (1996, Journal of Finance 51(2): 425–461). In doing so, we investigate the aggregated performance and investment style of ethical and conventional mutual funds and allow for time variation in the funds’ systematic risk. Our␣Canadian evidence supports the conjecture that any␣performance differential between ethical mutual funds and their conventional peers is statistically insignificant.      

市场经济条件下我国高校筹资问题探讨

随着我国社会主义市场经济的逐步完善和高等教育规模的不断扩展 ,筹资已成为制约我国高校健康、快速发展亟待解决的问题。文章探讨了在市场经济条件下高校筹资的主体地位 ,回顾了我国高等教育投资结构发生的变化 ,分析了高等院校筹资的难点问题并提出了相应对策。     

Gold price risk and the returns on gold mutual funds

A model is presented for estimating the theoretical gold price elasticity of the value of mutual funds investing in gold mining companies. The theoretical elasticity shows that if the funds invest in companies whose assets are comprised primarily of operating gold mines, then the return of an investment in the fund will be at least as great as an investment in gold (i.e., the gold price elasticity of the gold fund is greater than 1). Empirical tests of the above propositions are presented. Empirical tests also show, however, that the gold mutual funds contain a substantial amount of risk which is not explained either by market risk or gold price risk. Accordingly, gold mutual funds and gold bullion do not bring identical risks to an investor's portfolio.