Individual investor mutual fund flows

Zoran Ivković, Scott Weisbenner

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This paper studies the relation between individuals' mutual fund flows and fund characteristics, establishing three key results. First, consistent with tax motivations, individual investors are reluctant to sell mutual funds that have appreciated in value and are willing to sell losing funds. Second, individuals pay attention to investment costs as redemption decisions are sensitive to both expense ratios and loads. Third, individuals' fund-level inflows and outflows are sensitive to performance, but in different ways. Inflows are related only to "relative" performance, suggesting that new money chases the best performers in an objective. Outflows are related only to "absolute" fund performance, the relevant benchmark for taxes.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)223-237
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of Financial Economics
Volume92
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2009
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Individual investor portfolio choice
  • Mutual fund flows
  • Tax-motivated trading

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Accounting
  • Finance
  • Economics and Econometrics
  • Strategy and Management

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