Passing on the hot potato: The use of ETFs by open-ended funds to manage redemption requests

This paper examines the use of ETFs by open-ended investment funds in the euro area to manage liquidity. We find that during the COVID-19 market turmoil, investment funds were the most run-prone investor type in the market for ETFs. We also show that open-ended funds that faced larger outflows in March 2020 scaled down their ETF holdings by a larger amount. These results are consistent with open-ended funds passing on their outflows to the ETF shares they held. Since open-ended investment funds are the largest group of ETF investors in the euro area, their trading can materially impact primary ETF flows during times of stress.