Mutual fund performance: Using bespoke benchmarks to disentangle mandates, constraints and skillAlessandro Beber, Michael W. Brandt, Jason Cen and Kenneth A. Kavajecz Journal of Empirical Finance, 2021, vol. 60, issue C, 74-93 Abstract: While no two mutual funds are alike in terms of their mandates and constraints, metrics used to evaluate fund performance relative to peers typically fail to account for these differences by relying on generic benchmark indices and rankings. We develop a methodology to construct a conditional multi-factor benchmark that explicitly incorporates the details of a given fund’s mandates and constraints. The results suggest that (i) mandates and constraints are economically important and affect funds differently, (ii) in general, the average mutual fund has a much improved track record when comparing themselves to a bespoke benchmark, and (iii) the rank ordering of fund bespoke performance relative peers is significantly different than the original rank ordering suggesting advisors and board of directors would make better decisions regarding compensation and performance assessment respectively, if they incorporate the impact of mandates and constraints. Keywords: Mutual funds; Performance evaluation; Benchmarks; Mandates and constraints (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:empfin:v:60:y:2021:i:c:p:74-93 DOI: 10.1016/j.jempfin.2020.12.001 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Empirical Finance is currently edited by R. T. Baillie, F. C. Palm, Th. J. Vermaelen and C. C. P. Wolff More articles in Journal of Empirical Finance from Elsevier |
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