Hedge funds databases are typically subject to high attrition rates because of fund termination and self-selection. Even when all funds are included up to their last available return, one cannot prevent that ex post conditioning biases affect standard estimates of performance persistence. In...

A wide range of empirical biases hampers hedge fund databases. In this paper we focus upon survival-related biases and disentangle look-ahead biases due to self-selection of funds and due to fund termination. Self-selection arises because funds voluntarily report their information to data...

This paper extends the basic pecking order model of Shyam-Sunder and Myers (1999) by separating the effects of financing surpluses, normal deficits, and large deficits. Using a panel of U.S. firms over 1971-2005, we find that the estimated pecking order coefficient is highest for surpluses...

The use of advanced econometric techniques is becoming more and more standard in risk management and investments. Empirical results are important for, e.g., deriving and evaluating asset pricing models, determining attractive investment strategies or the evaluation of the performance of mutual...

In this paper we examine the usefulness of multivariate semi-parametric GARCH models for evaluating the Value-at-Risk (VaR) of a portfolio with arbitrary weights. We specify and estimate several alternative multivariate GARCH models for daily returns on the Samp;P 500 and Nasdaq indexes....

This paper analyzes the properties of a number of estimators that can be used to estimate short-run persistence in mutual fund returns. When data for different funds are pooled, it is advisable to correct for cross-sectional differences in expected returns. However, these adjustments may induce...

Performance persistence studies typically suffer from ex-post conditioning biases. As stressed by Carhart (1997a) and Carpenter and Lynch (1999), standard methods of analysis on a survivorship free sample are subject to look-ahead biases. In this paper, we show how one can easily correct for...

This paper investigates the question whether individual stock momentum in Europe is subsumed by country or industry momentum. We introduce a portfolio-based regression approach, which directly allows to test hypotheses about the existence and relative importance of multiple effects (e.g.,...

We study the trading performance of actively-managed mutual funds from 16 domicile countries investing in 42 equity markets over the period 2001-2014. In the aggregate, funds achieve particularly poor returns in U.S. equity: after adjusting for style, the stocks they buy underperform those they...

This paper tests the static tradeoff theory against the pecking order theory. We focus on an important difference in prediction: the static tradeoff theory argues that a firm increases leverage until it reaches its target debt ratio, while the pecking order yields debt issuance until the debt...