Do mutual fund managers manipulate?

Abstract

This is the first study to document the evidence for performance manipulation in the US equity mutual fund industry based on the performance manipulation-proof measure. Characteristics of the funds likely to be manipulated are identified.

Keywords:

• fund performance
• manipulation
• Morningstar ratings

JEL Classification:

• G12
• G23

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Professor Tom Smith for many helpful comments, and Professor Jian Yang has made many efforts to polish the earlier version. The article is based on a dissertation chapter of Bin Yu at Australian National University.

Additional information

Funding

This article is supported by Natural Science Foundation of China [Project no. 71303098].