Investment Mandates Research Articles

The evolving climate change investing strategies of asset owners

Asset owners will play a foundational role in how the financial system will respond to the immediate and long-term physical, transition, legal, and other risks and opportunities emerging from global climate change. We investigated how asset owners incorporated climate change in their investments using a process framework of organizational change. We conducted more than 50 interviews with asset owners with over $750B assets under management, and their stakeholders, including beneficiaries, lawyers, consultants, and asset managers. These asset owners included retail investors, high-net-worth family offices, pensions, foundations, endowments, trusts, and corporations. Interviewees discussed their investment strategies related to climate change, including mitigation, adaptation, profit, philanthropic finance, risks, and opportunities. We found that legal stakeholders sometimes drove conversations, that trustees gradually matured in their fiduciary identities, and that staff struggled to operationalize investment mandates. We summarize proposed interventions that will help asset owners better serve their commitments.

Municipalities at the crossroads: Deciphering the nexus between municipal insolvencies and international investment mandates

AbstractNavigating the convergence of domestic governance and international investment law presents multifaceted challenges in an ever‐globalizing world. The recent bankruptcy of the Birmingham City Council in September 2023, burdened by substantial debt from equal pay claims, serves as a poignant example, illustrating the potential widespread effects of local financial crises on international investment protections and obligations. The discourse explores the complexities arising from municipal insolvencies and the implications of such local fiscal policies on international investment obligations. The lens of international arbitral tribunals sheds light on the dilemmas faced when local realities vie with global responsibilities, especially concerning investor protections and Bilateral Investment Treaties. Decentralized states add another layer of intricacy, balancing regional policies with overarching international commitments. As the landscape of international investment law transforms, both state entities and investors must understand and adapt to the evolving interplay. The synthesis of these two realms is crucial in today's globalized era. Through proactive policy‐making, stakeholder dialogues, and a keen understanding of both local and global dynamics, a harmonious fusion of domestic objectives and international obligations can be achieved.

Do investors care about inflation risk? Evidence from global bond portfolio allocation

We investigate whether mutual funds adjust their portfolio allocations in global bond markets in response to country-level measures of inflation risk, specifically inflation volatility risk and inflation cyclicality. Our findings indicate that portfolio managers decrease allocations in countries with higher inflation volatility risk, relative to their overall portfolio exposure to inflation volatility risk. In contrast, inflation cyclicality does not exert a significant influence on global portfolio allocation decisions. We strengthen our results by analyzing funds according to their geographic investment mandates, fund characteristics, and portfolio composition.

Do policy uncertainty and ESG sentiment drive ESG commitment of green funds?

In this study, we examine the effect of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and environmental, social and governance (ESG) sentiment on the motivation of green funds (GFs) to pursue ESG objectives. We use data on US mutual funds that market themselves as having socially responsible investment (SRI) mandates (hereafter green funds) and find that managers increase their ESG practices in the subsequent year when EPU or investor’s attention to ESG issue rise. Interestingly, this pattern remains unchanged during crisis period (Covid-19 pandemic), although the marginal effect is much more lower. Our results show also that higher performance (alphas) decreases the ESG commitment of green funds in the subsequent year. Our findings suggest that policy uncertainty and ESG sentiment affect the motivations of green funds to pursue ESG objectives.

The Use of Credit Ratings in the Delegated Management of Fixed Income Assets

Investment mandates of fixed income funds constrain managers’ portfolio decisions, often employing credit ratings to classify asset risk. We categorize U.S. and European fixed income funds’ mandates using textual analysis and measure the use of ratings. Over the past two decades, despite the weaknesses of ratings revealed in the global financial crisis, ratings use has increased significantly. Since 2010, the fraction of funds not using ratings in any way has fallen by almost half in both the United States and Europe. By 2020, 94% of U.S. funds and 65% of European funds used ratings. These patterns fit agency-based models of investment mandates and point to a lack of practically useful alternatives. This paper was accepted by Tomasz Piskorski, finance. Funding: This work was supported by the Nasdaq Nordic Foundation. Supplemental Material: The data files and e-companion are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4848 .

Sustainable Thematic Investing: Identifying Opportunities Based on an Analysis of Stewardship Reports

Globally, a growing number of stakeholders recognise that sustainability determines success on multiple levels. Therefore, asset managers in developing and emerging countries increasingly focus on sustainable investment opportunities. While institutional investors largely centred on governance considerations pre-2020, the Coronavirus pandemic highlighted substantial social and environmental concerns at companies worldwide. As South Africa is the most unequal country globally according to the World Bank, decisions made by local institutional investors can have significant implications for individuals and environments where capital is invested. The objectives of this study were hence to analyse the sustainability themes on which South African asset managers focused in their stewardship reports and to explore the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that they addressed through their investment mandates. A content analysis was performed on stewardship reports that were published in 2020 and 2021 to consider the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. The findings indicate that prioritised sustainability themes include climate action, infrastructure development and social considerations. The considered asset managers accordingly focused on addressing climate action (SDG 13), decent work and economic growth (SDG 8), and affordable and clean energy (SDG 7). Promising investment opportunities in companies that address key social issues, including the health and well-being of society (SDG 3) and broadening access to quality education (SDG 4) were also highlighted. The leaders of local investee companies are thus encouraged to ensure concise, transparent reporting on these material matters to enhance communication and engagement with institutional investors and other key stakeholders. This study offers a novel perspective on sustainable thematic investing in a highly unequal society.

Institutional investors, heterogeneous benchmarks and the comovement of asset prices

We study the equilibrium implications of a multi-asset economy in which asset managers performance is tied to different benchmarks, reflecting heterogeneity in their investment mandates. Fluctuations in the capital asset managers invest for benchmarking purposes, scaled by the size of the economy, induce price pressure that results in negative spillovers across assets. We characterize a rich structure of asset price comovement within and across benchmarks by analyzing shock elasticities and cross-elasticities of price-dividend ratios. Evidence on the heterogeneity of mutual fund mandates and the benchmarking-induced return comovement across cap-style and industry-sector portfolios corroborates the model assumptions and predictions.

The agency cost of investing in ethical funds: A style analysis approach

This study aims to determine whether ethical funds make portfolio choices in line with their investment mandates. Our results show that during the first half of the sample period, it is much more difficult to distinguish the investment styles of ethical and conventional funds. The potential for ethical fund investors to face agency conflicts from investing in portfolios that are not necessarily in line with their preferences based on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria is higher in the earlier years. In the second half of the sample period, ethical funds appear to invest more in large stocks that have higher ESG ratings than their conventional counterparts. Even though both fund classes have decreased their allocation to ESG-based investment alternatives in recent years, they seem to have slightly more distinct investment styles.

Editor’s Letter

1. Brian Bruce 1. Editor-in-Chief To open this issue, Horan, Dimson, Emery, Blay, and Yelton provide an overview of the current state of ESG investing, highlighting the key challenges ESG investors and portfolio managers face when implementing ESG investment mandates. They recommend an issuer

The State of ESG Investing: A Portfolio Management Perspective

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies have experienced a massive inflow of capital over the past decade, despite investors having little concrete evidence that ESG investing accomplishes its purported goals. This capital inflow also happened without investors possessing the information, tools, and methods needed to evaluate and communicate their specific ESG values, objectives, and preferences. Without evidence of efficacy and clearly articulated investment objectives, it is impossible for investors with ESG intent to know whether they are receiving what they are paying for, to distinguish between investment managers based on nonfinancial objectives, and to improve the likelihood of achieving positive ESG investing outcomes. This article highlights the key challenges faced by ESG investors and portfolio managers implementing ESG investment mandates. Recommendations include an issuer reporting framework that supports portfolio reporting and evaluation as well as an ESG product template that focuses on nonfinancial investment objectives, process elements, and measurable outcomes.

Do Lower Foreign Flows and Higher Domestic Flows Reduce Indian Equity Market Volatility?

This study examines the relationship that both domestic and foreign institutional net equity flows have with the India stock markets. The motivation behind is the study to examine whether increased net equity investments from domestic institutional investors has reduced the influence of foreign equity flows on the Indian stock market volatility. Our results indicate that only during periods in which domestic equity inflows surpass foreign flows by a significant margin, as seen during 2015–2018, is the Indian stock market volatility not significantly influenced by foreign equity investments. However, during periods of re-emergence of strong foreign net inflows, the Indian market volatility is still being impacted significantly, as has been observed since 2019. Furthermore, we find that both large-scale net buying and net selling by domestic funds increased the stock market volatility as observed during 2015–2018 and COVID-impacted year 2020 respectively. The implications of this study are multi-fold. First, the regulators should discuss with industry bodies before enforcing major structural changes like reconstituting of mutual fund investment mandate in 2017 which forced domestic funds to quickly change portfolio allocation amongst large-cap, mid-cap and small-cap stocks resulting in higher stock market volatility. Second, adequate investor educational and awareness programmes need to be conducted regularly for retail investors to minimize herd behaviour of investing during market rise and heavy redemptions at times of fall. Third, the economic policies should be stable and forward-looking to ensure foreign investors remain attracted to the Indian stock markets at all times.

How Cyclical Are Stock Market Return Expectations? Evidence from Capital Market Assumptions

We collect return expectations from the capital market assumptions of asset management firms that manage a combined USD 21.6 trillion in 2020. Consistent with leading rational expectations asset pricing models, asset managers' subjective equity premium expectations are high when valuations are low and low when valuations are high (countercyclical), and the term structure of subjective equity premium expectations is downward sloping when valuations are low and upward sloping when valuations are high (procyclical). As U.S. equity valuations increased over the last decade, the ten-year expected U.S. equity premium declined from 4.3% per year at the beginning of the decade to 3.4% per year at the end of the decade and temporarily spiked by 2.4 percentage points during the COVID-19 induced market sell off in March 2020.

Auctioning Corporate Bonds: A Uniform-Price under Investment Mandates

Auctioning Corporate Bonds: A Uniform-Price under Investment Mandates

Skin color and investment performance in South Africa's mutual funds industry

PurposeUsing data for the period 1965–2016, we investigate whether there are systematic differences between the investment performance of Black fund managers and those of other races in South Africa and whether investors recognize these differences. The two-tailed test results show that there is no significant difference between the two means considering the 12 months yield return at a hypothesized mean difference of zero. There is no statistical difference at 5% level of significance implying that the performance of Black fund managers is as equally as that of managers of other races. Our results also show that the percentage of Black fund managers in South Africa is still too low even as the workforce gets diverse. There's no single explanation for what is happening in this industry. The findings cannot be explained by differences in fund characteristics such as age, total assets under management or expenses or from the performance lenses. The results seem hard to reconcile with an explanation of differences in portfolio characteristics such as return volatility or market, size, value and momentum exposures.Design/methodology/approachWe test the glass cliff hypothesis by employing conditional logistic regression (CLR). The approach enables the use of case/control style of analysis where White/majority fund managers are the control population and professional minorities are the case group. The selection of these as fund managers is our event or outcome variable. To test savior effect hypothesis, we employ analysis of variance (ANOVA). The technique enables us to compare variances between the groups: when a White male fund manager replaces a professional minority, when a White male fund manager replaces a White male fund manager and when a professional minority replaces a professional minority.FindingsOur analyses so far have documented a woeful underrepresentation of Black fund managers in South Africa's mutual funds industry. We explore potential explanations for these trends. Our analysis is meant to be suggestive. Are Blacks, women, people of color and ethnic minorities finding success in the investment industry? Are they having rewarding and fulfilling careers? Or is the industry still homogenous (just a White man's world) with a thin veneer of diversity layered on for public relations effect? The percentage of Black fund managers in South Africa is still too low even as the workforce gets diverse. There is no single explanation for what is happening in this industry. The findings cannot be explained by differences in fund characteristics such as age, total assets under management or expenses or from the performance lenses. Also, the results seem hard to reconcile with an explanation of differences in portfolio characteristics such as return volatility or market, size, value and momentum exposures.Research limitations/implicationsThe two-tailed test results show that there is no significant difference between the two means considering the 12 months yield return at a hypothesized mean difference of zero. There is no statistical difference at 5% level of significance. Our results so far establish that, ceteris paribus, the performance of Black fund managers is as equally as that of managers of other races.Practical implicationsThe two-tailed test results show that there is no significant difference between the two means considering the 12 months yield return at a hypothesized mean difference of zero. There is no statistical difference at 5% level of significance. Our results so far establish that, ceteris paribus, the performance of Black fund managers is as equally important as that of managers of other races.Social implicationsThe two-tailed test results show that there is no significant difference between the two means considering the 12 months yield return at a hypothesized mean difference of zero. There is no statistical difference at 5% level of significance. Our results so far establish that, ceteris paribus, the performance of Black fund managers is as equally important as that of managers of other races.Originality/valueThis paper investigates whether there are systematic differences between the investment performance of Black fund managers and those of other races in South Africa and whether investors recognize these differences. Our hypothesis is that due to Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) laws in the country and possibly, due to a perception of discrimination in the market, it is only Black fund managers with superior fund management skills that enter the profession. As such, we expect to find superior performance among Black fund managers. We also conjecture that investors recognize this phenomenon and reward Black fund managers with more fund flows and more investment mandates than others.

Institutional Corporate Bond Demand

We compile a rich dataset that links institutional investors' position level holdings with corporate bond characteristics and estimate demand elasticities with respect to critical sources of risk. Persistence in institutions' holdings provide us with an instrument to isolate exogenous movements in prices. We find significant heterogeneity in demand elasticities across the main players in the corporate bond market, namely insurers, pension funds, and mutual funds. Long-term investors are sensitive to interest rate movements and supply liquidity, whereas mutual funds, with shorter investment horizon and benchmark constraints, demand liquidity. Price impact increased post-crisis for all institutions and has remained higher than the pre-crisis levels, signaling a general decline in bond market liquidity due perhaps to regulatory changes in the corporate bond market. Price impact jumped up significantly during COVID-19, perhaps suggesting a reluctance of dealers to intermediate in the market place, and illustrating that firms' funding opportunities are highly sensitive to investors' latent demand shocks. Our results have wide ranging implications for corporate bond pricing due to heterogeneity in investors and investment mandates, and are hard to reconcile with standard, representative agent based models.

Socially Conscious Investors: Mitigating Stock Market Losses During Pandemic Times

Recent years have witnessed a surge in investors with a socially responsible investment mandate. We study stock returns associated with this practice in the COVID-19 crash and the surrounding months. Stocks with greater socially responsible investor demand experience superior returns, lower volatility, and better market valuations during the crash. These effects largely disappear post-crash. No differences are found with respect to sales, gross profitability, and operating income as well as expectations about the long-term growth rate of earnings per share. This suggests that socially responsible investors can act as a moderating force by mitigating losses in a time of crisis.

Formation of Proactive Strategies of Chinese Private Equity Funds in the Russian Corporate Control Market

The article discusses the boundaries and contours of the possible institutional behavior of private equity funds (PEFs) in the Russian Federation in modern conditions. It analyzes the transformation of PEF sectoral interests in the Russian assets of non-public companies in the period of economic instability. Besides, it gives a relevant assessment of changes in the regional aspects of interaction between PEFs and recipient companies from Russia against the background of sanctions and import substitution, as well as private equity cycle. The article presents the modern metrics of Chinese PEFs and a multi-level monitoring of existing Chinese PEF projects in the Russian economy. It also analyzes the effects of multi-agent relations of PEFs and target companies in Russia against the background of a gradual recovery of the country’s economic growth. The article discusses the current and preferred format for the participation of investors in the PE market in the context of the adaptation of the Russian economy to the sanctions regime. It identifies the factors affecting the prospects and dynamics of the development of Chinese PEFs with an investment mandate for Russia and discusses the mechanisms of institutional support for expanding the presence of Chinese PEs in the Russian market for corporate control

The Private Use of Credit Ratings: Evidence from Investment Mandates

Fixed income markets rely on delegated asset management, where fund managers’ portfolio decisions are directed and restricted by investment mandates. We use textual analysis to classify U.S. fixed income funds’ mandate contents. Credit ratings can be used in mandates to define investable assets. Despite the shortcomings of ratings revealed in the global financial crisis, their use in mandates has steadily increased over the past two decades. By 2018, ratings are used by 94% of fixed income mutual funds. Credit ratings are an integral feature of contracting in financial markets and our results point to a lack of practically useful alternatives.

Decision-making in the management of property investment by Australian superannuation funds

Decision-making in property investment by superannuation funds is an important investment decision, but it is different to their decision-making on other asset classes included in their asset portfolios. The large value and heterogeneous nature of individual pieces of real estate make the market for real estate relatively illiquid and subject to larger transaction costs than other asset classes. Based on interview surveys of Australian superannuation funds, using the analytical hierarchical process (AHP), we identified strategic decision-making as being the most important factor used by the superannuation funds when making decisions on the management of their property investment portfolio. Comments during the interviews indicated that their decisions were influenced by restrictions in their fund’s investment mandate and the level of funds that they had to invest. The AHP technique has allowed this research to provide a more in-depth understanding of the management of decision-making factors than previous surveys.

The invisible hand of internal markets in mutual fund families

Abstract The internal markets of fund families can encourage member funds to deviate excessively from their investment mandates. Theoretically, we show that fund managers following sufficiently different style benchmarks can engage in risk-shifting by trading with one another at low cost inside their family. This benefits the managers and the family even in the absence of a family-level strategy. However, the excessive risks taken by the managers can be costly to fund investors. Empirically, we find support for the positive effect of intra-family style diversity on offsetting trades across funds and on deviations of funds’ portfolios from their benchmarks.