We study the equilibrium implications of a multi-asset economy in which asset managers are subject to different benchmarks, and demonstrate how heterogeneous benchmarking generates a mechanism through which fundamental shocks propagate across assets. Fluctuations in asset managers' capital...

We propose a theory of self-selection by mutual fund managers into picking and timing strategies. With adverse selection, investors learn more easily about the skill of picking funds than of timing funds, since picking investments are less correlated than timing investments. The equilibrium...

Decomposing mutual funds' tracking error into its idiosyncratic and systematic components is informative about funds' intention to implement picking and timing strategies. Accordingly, we define the fraction of a fund's active return variance that is idiosyncratic as the fund's degree of picking...