This paper analyzes persistence in US equity mutual fund performance over the period 2001-2011 for both net and gross returns. We apply commonly-used measures of persistence, which we test using a set of simulated passive funds. In the first stage we apply contingency tables and transition...

The literature analyzing the efficiency of financial institutions has evolved rapidly over the last twenty years. Most research has focused on the input side, analyzing either cost, input technical efficiency or input allocative efficiency, whereas comparatively fewer studies have examined the...

This study attempts to provide one of the first comprehensive analyses on the misratings in sovereign credit ratings. The analyses are performed using partial frontier methods which should be considered innovative in this literature. By combining a robust variant of the Free Disposal Hull (FDH)...

While the beneficial effects of social trust on economic performance have been largely recognized, we analyze if these effects can be generalized for economies at different stages of economic development and for different time horizons. Contrary to previous studies on this issue based on average...

While it has been long recognized that active management represents an important issue related to mutual fund performance, little has been agreed about the value added by managers from their abilities point of view. This study attempts to explore both fund and manager characteristics in order to...

This study explores the impact of ownership types on efficiency of Italian water utilities. Theories and evidence have shown a puzzling relationship between ownership and performance. Moreover, a recent study argues that this relationship can be further complicated by the effect of...

Recent literature has shown how relevant social capital may be as an important determinant of economic growth. However, the empirical evidence in contexts such as Europe, particularly at the regional level, is still scant, and its likely implications for income convergence are entirely...

This paper analyzes the factors that directly influence levels of debt in Spanish local governments. Specifically, the main objective is to find out the extent to which indebtedness is originated by controllable factors that public managers can influence, or whether it hinges on other variables...

We analyse the performance persistence and survivorship bias of Islamic and Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) funds. The remarkable growth of these two types of ethical funds over the last two decades raises the question of how non-financial attributes influence performance and performance...

This study uses the global Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index to measure performance change in the educational systems of 28 countries participating in the TIMSS 2007 and 2011 for eighth grade basic education students in the discipline of mathematics. This methodology is particularly...