Fund manager characteristics and performance

This study establishes a multitier framework to evaluate how fund manager characteristics systematically affect mutual fund performance. The framework includes three tiers of performance elements: comprehensive performance; return and risk; and timing skill and picking ability. Using performance decomposition, our evidence indicates that various characteristics take distinct channels to influence return, risk and fund manager abilities, which in turn affect comprehensive performance. In particular, having a degree of Master of Business Administration or a Chartered Financial Analyst qualification is significantly associated with a fund manager's better stock-picking ability, higher excess returns and better comprehensive performance.