Mutual fund performance: Using bespoke benchmarks to disentangle mandates, constraints and skill
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.
Duke Scholars
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Related Subject Headings
- Finance
- 3801 Applied economics
- 3502 Banking, finance and investment
- 1502 Banking, Finance and Investment
- 1403 Econometrics
- 1402 Applied Economics
Citation
Published In
DOI
ISSN
Publication Date
Volume
Start / End Page
Related Subject Headings
- Finance
- 3801 Applied economics
- 3502 Banking, finance and investment
- 1502 Banking, Finance and Investment
- 1403 Econometrics
- 1402 Applied Economics