Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/57735 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
CFR Working Paper No. 06-02
Publisher: 
University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR), Cologne
Abstract: 
This paper develops a simple technique that controls for false discoveries, or mutual funds that exhibit significant alphas by luck alone. Our approach precisely separates funds into (1) unskilled, (2) zero-alpha, and (3) skilled funds, even with dependencies in cross-fund estimated alphas. We find that 75% of funds exhibit a zero alpha (net of expenses), consistent with the Berk and Green (2004) equilibrium. Further, we find a significant proportion of skilled (positive alpha) funds prior to 1996, but almost none by 2006. We also show that controlling for false discoveries substantially improves the ability to find funds with persistent performance.
Subjects: 
Mutual Fund Performance
Multiple-Hypothesis Test
Luck
False Discovery Rate
JEL: 
G11
G23
C12
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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