The Effect of Performance on Israeli Equity Fund Flows

Abstract

This paper examines the influence of past performance on Israeli equity mutual funds' net flows between January 2004 and July 2014, using the most recommended and reliable two-cluster regression methodology. Apparently, Israeli investors are more sensitive to risk adjusted returns than absolute returns and the most recent performance seems to be more influential on fund flows than on longer-term past performance. Moreover, investors flock to the latest winners and do not leave the funds with the poorest performance. The effect of past performance seems to be more salient on flows of advertised funds than of those with no advertisement.  The results in Israel augment the scant work on mutual fund flows outside the US and add support to a growing body of literature documenting irrational investor behavior worldwide.