Repetita Iuvant: mutual fund performance during the Covid pandemic
Repetita Iuvant: mutual fund performance during the Covid pandemic
Do fund managers learn about salient risks? To address this issue, we explore whether managers' exposure to prior disease outbreaks might affect their fund performance during COVID-19. Using data on US equity fund managers, we find that H1N1 funds with managers exposed to the influenza A disease in 2009 (H1N1) generate superior returns during the 2020 COVID-19 crisis compared to other funds. A possible explanation is that H1N1 funds use less human-interaction-based information after H1N1 exposure so that their performance is less affected by the lockdowns that prevented social interaction during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conversely, we do not find that they have changed their exposure through the domestic holdings of firms with international supply chains after H1N1. Overall, our findings support the view that managers' professional experience may affect investment style and explain superior performance for funds with managers exposed to similar exogenous experiences throughout their careers.
COVID pandemic, H1N1, experience, mutual fund managers, supply chain
Choudhry, Taufiq
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Degl’Innocenti, Marta
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Zhou, Si
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Zhou, Yue
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Choudhry, Taufiq
6fc3ceb8-8103-4017-b3b5-2d38efa57728
Degl’Innocenti, Marta
ea4edade-f55d-4988-9e94-1917bf3ab4b9
Zhou, Si
f1d4f89d-74ad-46dd-b919-733b1ee4839e
Zhou, Yue
1f8cb3b9-0e34-4dd9-862c-e1c7e238d4c7
Choudhry, Taufiq, Degl’Innocenti, Marta, Zhou, Si and Zhou, Yue
(2025)
Repetita Iuvant: mutual fund performance during the Covid pandemic.
International Journal of Finance & Economics.
(doi:10.1002/ijfe.3144).
Abstract
Do fund managers learn about salient risks? To address this issue, we explore whether managers' exposure to prior disease outbreaks might affect their fund performance during COVID-19. Using data on US equity fund managers, we find that H1N1 funds with managers exposed to the influenza A disease in 2009 (H1N1) generate superior returns during the 2020 COVID-19 crisis compared to other funds. A possible explanation is that H1N1 funds use less human-interaction-based information after H1N1 exposure so that their performance is less affected by the lockdowns that prevented social interaction during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conversely, we do not find that they have changed their exposure through the domestic holdings of firms with international supply chains after H1N1. Overall, our findings support the view that managers' professional experience may affect investment style and explain superior performance for funds with managers exposed to similar exogenous experiences throughout their careers.
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Repetita_Iuvant_Mutual_Fund_Performance_during_the_Covid_Pandemic_Final
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Restricted to Repository staff only until 10 March 2027.
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Accepted/In Press date: 12 February 2025
e-pub ahead of print date: 10 March 2025
Keywords:
COVID pandemic, H1N1, experience, mutual fund managers, supply chain
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 499546
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/499546
ISSN: 1076-9307
PURE UUID: 55e7c5d2-d803-4fc7-8501-b7256856f02e
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Date deposited: 25 Mar 2025 18:09
Last modified: 28 Aug 2025 02:12
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Contributors
Author:
Marta Degl’Innocenti
Author:
Si Zhou
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