There is significant heterogeneity in ESG funds’ incentives to engage with portfolio firms. If funds view ESG as a value driver, then these incentives will affect funds’ behavior and thus their impact on firms. We compare ESG funds with similar …
This paper examines how securities lending affects liquidity management and performance in corporate bond mutual funds. We show that funds engaging in lending hold significantly less cash than non-lenders, suggesting a more aggressive portfolio …
Using new SEC data, we study fund derivative use and its impact on performance. Despite small portfolio weights, derivatives contribute largely to fund returns. Contrary to prior research, we find most employ derivatives to amplify, not hedge, equity …
Using mutual funds' security lending patterns, we propose a data-driven method using association rules to differentiate shorting demand for general hedging and for exploiting firm-specific negative information, which enables us to quantify whether a …
This paper investigates portfolio pumping at the fund family level, where non-star fund managers strategically purchase stocks held by star funds in the family to inflate their quarter-end performance. Star funds that engage in such activities show …
This paper examines investors' retirement savings allocation using a hand-collected dataset on 401(k) plans. We find that 83% of investors in our sample hold only 39% of total assets and follow a return-chasing strategy. In contrast, the remaining …