Mutual Fund Manager Gender and Their Effects on Performance

[[abstract]]Many studies on mutual funds discuss fund managers’ abilities of market timing, selectivity, and mutual fund performance persistence. The present study investigates the possible gender differences in fund managers’ investment behaviors and how such differences influence fund performance by analyzing a sample of 245 open-end funds from January 1994 to December 2013. The empirical results show significantly higher performance and risk level among female funds managers compared with those of their male counterparts. However, the turnover rate and expense ratio of the funds managed by the men are significantly higher compared with the funds managed by women. Moreover, a multiple regression analysis reveals that the funds managed by women are superior in performance under low total risk, small investment amount, and high systematic risk conditions