We investigate the benefits of specialized knowledge in generating superior performance in the asset management industry. We compare the returns of health sector mutual fund managers with prior health-related education or experience (specialists) to those without such a background (generalists)....

We investigate the returns to specialized knowledge in asset management, by comparing the performance of medical specialists and generalists in managing health care sector mutual funds. Specialist alpha is nearly 5% higher on an annualized basis, after controlling for fund and manager observable...

I measure the value that investors place on trust and relationships in asset management by examining mutual fund flows around announced changes in the ownership of fund management companies. I find a decline in flows of around 7% of fund assets in the year following the announcement date,...

We study innovation and product differentiation using a uniqueness measure based on textual analysis of prospectuses. We find that small and startup families have higher start rates than larger families and their products are more unique. Unique strategies attract more inflows in the first three...

The market for passive ETFs and passive ETF benchmarks has exploded in the past decade. ETF sponsors get index benchmarks from brand name index providers (e.g., S&P, Russell, MSCI), a large number of smaller providers, or internally. We find that benchmark and index provider characteristics are...