TY  - JOUR
AU  - Ivkovich,Zoran
AU  - Weisbenner,Scott
TI  - Individual Investor Mutual-Fund Flows
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 14583
PY  - 2008
Y2  - December 2008
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14583
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14583.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Zoran Ivkovich
Department of Finance
Michigan State University
315 Eppley Center
East Lansing, MI 48824
Tel: (517) 353-4593
E-Mail: ivkovich@bus.msu.edu

Scott Weisbenner
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Department of Finance
340 Wohlers Hall, MC-706
1206 South Sixth Street
Champaign, IL  61820
Tel: 217/333-0872
Fax: 217/244-9867
E-Mail: weisbenn@illinois.edu
AB  - This paper studies the relation between individuals' mutual fund flows and fund characteristics, establishing three key results. First, consistent with tax motivations, individual investors are reluctant to sell mutual funds that have appreciated in value and are willing to sell losing funds. Second, individuals pay attention to investment costs as redemption decisions are sensitive to both expense ratios and loads. Third, individuals' fund-level inflows and outflows are sensitive to performance, but in different ways. Inflows are related only to "relative" performance, suggesting that new money chases the best performers in an objective. Outflows are related only to "absolute" fund performance, the relevant benchmark for taxes.
ER  -