This paper analyzes the performance of portfolio strategies that invest in noload, open-end U.S. domestic equity mutual funds, incorporating predictability in (i) manager skills, (ii) fund risk-loadings, and (iii) benchmark returns. Predictability in manager skills is found to be the dominant...

We propose a new measure of fund investment skill, Active Fund Overpricing (AFO), encapsulating the fund's active share of investments, the direction of fund active bets with regard to mispriced stocks, and the dispersion of mispriced stocks in the fund's investment opportunity set. We find that...

This paper proposes an information acquisition model to analyze active management when ESG matters. In equilibrium, more information is purchased when the asset sustainability profile departs from green neutrality, the fund ESG preference departs from the aggregate, or cross-fund heterogeneities...