Academic literature on the topic 'Delegated portfolio choice'

In response to how they are compensated, mutual fund managers who are underperforming by mid-year are likely to increase the risk of their portfolios toward the year-end. We argue that an increase in the liquidity of the stocks that managers use to shift risk can lead to an increase in the size of their risky bets. This in turn hurts fund investors by increasing the costs of misaligned incentives associated with delegated portfolio management. We provide both theoretical and empirical results that are consistent with this argument. We use decimalization as an exogenous shock to liquidity to identify causal effects.

Exploiting a representative sample of the French population by age, wealth, and asset classes, we document novel facts about their expectations and perceptions of stock market returns. Both expectations and perceptions of returns are very dispersed, significantly lower than their data counterparts, and a substantial portion of the variation in the former is explained by dispersion in the latter. Consistent with portfolio choice models under incomplete information, a conditional risk-return trade-off explains the intensive margin, while at the extensive margin, only expected returns matter. Despite accounting for survey measurement error in subjective return expectations, ’muted sensitivities’ at both portfolio choice margins obtain, getting consistently (i) bigger when excluding informed non-participants, and (ii) smaller, for inertial and professionally delegated portfolios.

We investigate delegated investment management in private pension accounts using data from Australian accumulation (superannuation) funds. In Australian non-profit pension funds, trustees choose investment managers on behalf of members. We find that funds with many delegated managers have higher risk-adjusted returns than those with few. However funds with 13 or less specialized managers show no improvement over funds with a single diversified manager. All do worse than a benchmark portfolio of asset-class indices. Further, by using random selection to mimic the choices of an uninformed individual choosing from the same menu of delegate managers as used by trustees, we show that returns from pension funds with large numbers of trustee-selected managers compare favorably with returns from randomly selected, equally weighted portfolios. However this improvement falls off quickly for funds with fewer trustee-selected managers, or when randomly selected portfolios are also diversified across asset classes. Results indicate that an uninformed individual following a naive diversification strategy would have done as well as most trustee boards in this sample.

ABSTRACT Social ties between mutual funds and the companies in which they invest (investees) can both facilitate information transfers and encourage favoritism. Using the investment choices of mutual funds in China, we compare investment performance of holdings in companies that are socially connected to mutual funds versus those that are not. We find that funds allocate more investment to connected investees' stocks, especially when a fund is weakly monitored. This overweighting is greater in times of poor investee performance, when the benefits of additional investment to the connected investees are high. Weakly monitored funds' preference for connected stocks hurts the returns of these funds, yielding a 6.6 percent lower annualized risk-adjusted return, relative to closely monitored funds. These results suggest that, absent sufficient monitoring, agency conflicts generated by social networks can dominate the information advantages of these networks. JEL Classifications: G10; G11; G14.

Home bias is a perennial feature of international capital markets. We review various explanations of this puzzling phenomenon highlighting recent developments in macroeconomic modeling that incorporate international portfolio choices in standard two-country general equilibrium models. We refer to this new literature as Open Economy Financial Macroeconomics. We focus on three broad classes of explanations: (i) hedging motives in frictionless financial markets (real exchange rate and nontradable income risk), (ii) asset trade costs in international financial markets (such as transaction costs or differences in tax treatments between national and foreign assets), and (iii) informational frictions and behavioral biases. Recent theories call for new portfolio facts beyond equity home bias. We present new evidence on cross-border asset holdings across different types of assets: equities, bonds and bank lending and new micro data on institutional holdings of equity at the fund level. These data should inform macroeconomic modeling of the open economy and a growing literature of models of delegated investment. (JEL E13, F41, G11, G12, G15)

Abstract Target-date funds in corporate retirement plans grew from $5 billion in 2000 to $734 billion in 2018, partly because federal regulation sanctioned these as default investments in automatic enrollment plans. We show that adopters delegated pension investment decisions to fund managers selected by plan sponsors. Inclusion of these funds in retirement saving menus raised equity shares, boosted bond exposures, curtailed cash/company stock holdings, and reduced idiosyncratic risk. The adoption of low-cost target-date funds may enhance retirement wealth by as much as 50% over a 30-year horizon.

Central to this dissertation are client driven housing management from housing associations in The Netherlands and the empowerment effects this management has on its tenants. The central issue includes what client driven housing management is (definition), in which ways this can be devised, what the envisioned effects are and which effects this management successfully accomplishes. These are answered by means of seven sub questions. The focal point of this research shifts from an exploration of all the initiatives that can be found in client driven housing management, to the empowerment effect for its tenants of ‘Te Woon’ as one of these initiatives. In this summary the answers to the seven sub questions are briefly given. What is client driven housing management (1) is answered by means of a literature study. In this dissertation client driven housing management is defined as “the management which actively involves the tenants in policy formulation and policy implementation concerning the housing quality, price and/or property rights of dwellings”. This definition includes initiatives ranging from kitchen improvement programmes offering a choice of designs, to programme formulation to improve neighbourhood quality. ‘Te Woon’ (also known as ‘the clients’ choice programme’) is included in this definition since it gives the tenants the opportunity to own a home and have control over the home. This has effect on the composition and quality of the (social) housing stock. Contrary to normal sales programmes, Te Woon offers the tenants to purchase a dwelling with a discount and offers them a shared risk (by splitting profit or loss at the moment of re-sale between housing association and owner). Moreover, the housing association is obliged to re-buy the home at the moment the tenant offers it. In this way the dwelling always re-enters the housing associations’ portfolio and doesn’t get lost from the social housing stock. How can client driven housing management initiatives be ordered and valuated (2) is answered by using different approaches to management and tenant influence devised from literature. Housing associations in the Netherlands are limited in their actions and operations by law (amongst others the BBSH). The law prescribes certain main tasks to housing associations and several policy domains have been used to determine the policy subjects that can be addressed. The influence the tenants can have on these subjects can be valuated by using the ladder of citizen participation. The ladder illustrates the grade to which the tenant has actually a say in matters and thus shares control with the housing association. In the most extreme case the tenant gets the full control over the dwelling by obtaining the property rights. Limitations are to be found in the legal system which prescribes the basic division of property rights between owners and users and in the laws concerning the rental housing market. Based on a theoretical exploration of the opportunities for the transfer of control from the housing association to the tenants by comparing the grades of citizen control with the policy domains, one domain proves to be promising. The policy domain of ‘dwelling purchase and sale’ offers the most opportunities to transfer control since in the extreme case the tenant could own its own dwelling, the tenant gets full property rights and thus transcends the ladder of citizen participation. The policy domain purchase and sale of dwellings thus offers the most opportunities to provide tenants with freedom, autonomy and personal development (empowerment). Which initiatives in client driven housing management can be found in the Dutch housing associations’ practice (3) is answered based on a survey amongst associations. The housing associations that participated reckoned every initiative that gave the tenant more than a single option to client driven housing management. The analysis of the initiatives mentioned by the housing associations showed that a few types of client driven housing management were numerous. Moreover, the analysis showed that the initiatives are rather limited to the housing policy domains concerning housing maintenance and improvement and purchase and sale of dwellings. The opportunities offered to the tenants have been analysed using participation grades. The initiatives aim to offer tenants individual choice, focused on the interior of the dwelling (kitchens etc.) and offer mostly a choice between options: delegated (and limited) choices. Within the domain of purchase and sale of dwellings (including especially Te Woon) individual choice to own is stimulated and provides with different initiatives sharing risk and offering reductions on sales prices. The initiatives aiming on the option to buy offer the best perspective on personal development by offering the opportunity of transferring full control to the tenant. All the other initiatives that were found transfer less control and offer a limited choice and limited control to the tenants. Which effects are envisioned as a result of client driven housing management (4) is answered through a literature review. The literature revealed a broad spectrum of effects ranging from housing quality and market effects to tenant empowerment and cultivating citizenship. Tenant empowerment in all her different forms is the core of this dissertation. Empowerment can be interpreted in notions of power. Power can point at authority, energy and capacity. Authority empowerment describes the rights and duties and lines up with the property rights. It describes what you are allowed to do with a dwelling. Energy empowerment describes the motivation to act, the willingness. Energy empowerment can be devised in meaningfulness (caring), choice (freedom of choice and availability of choice options), impact (the expected cause-effect relation, knowledge of results) and competence (feeling and being capable to act). Capacity empowerment describes the ability to act and can be measured in scales for control (influence on own life and circumstances), self image (self esteem) and security (feeling safe at home). Economical empowerment can be mentioned as a fourth form of empowerment. It is defined as the opportunity to profit. For example this can be by offering a reduction on the price thereby making the home affordable and providing the opportunity to save by means of the mortgage and to profit by means of selling at a higher price. The different forms of empowerment are interrelated. Within energy empowerment, capacity empowerment aspects are enclosed. Without the authority or the right to act, the opportunity to profit can be denied. But willing and feeling able to act and having the right to do so, are related as well: when someone thinks (s)he isn’t able to do something, this (negatively) influences the will to act. The choice option to own a dwelling is, theoretically speaking, again the most promising initiative within client driven housing management since it possibly touches upon the willingness, the abilities, the rights (to be allowed) and the possibility of profiting. What are the effects that housing associations aim for with Te Woon (5) is answered by means of interviewing housing associations’ staff. The motivation for the Te Woon initiative can be traced back to the ideals of the paternalistic housing associations: to educate people in housing. Nowadays this paternalistic view on housing of the housing associations shares importance with a (internal) financial motive. Housing associations (since they have been privatised) are in need of cash flow to keep their maintenance and redevelopment tasks going. The housing associations expect as an effect of Te Woon both financial revenues and tenant empowerment at the same time. The option to buy gives tenants the opportunity to control their dwelling and gain (some) control over their living environment. It should thereby lead to an improvement in the living quality in the neighbourhood and improve the independence of the tenants. However, the need to sell dwellings to generate cash flow for reinvestment, conflicts with the freedom of choice of the tenants. Housing associations are tempted to improve the amount of sold homes by putting pressure upon tenants to buy. Besides, the housing associations’ staff expects different short and long term effects from Te Woon. Tenant empowerment can be found in different forms as an envisioned effect (ranging from improving independence to improving participation and engagement and from personal development to improving their financial position). Other envisioned effects include a positive effect on the living quality in the neighbourhood, alongside with housing quality differentiation (both in homes as in tenants). Long term effects that are mentioned include an improvement in the general functioning of the housing market. What are the empowerment effects that tenants expect from Te Woon (6) is answered by means of explorative in depth interviews with tenants. Although tenants do expect effects of Te Woon, they do express hesitations and reservations in their expectations. Tenants do believe that owner occupiers take better care of their home and that sales will improve the living quality in the neighbourhood. However, they do not expect a swift change. In addition, they ask for a more active attitude from the housing association in the approach of problems in the living and neighbourhood quality and ask the association to speak up (in their name) towards the municipality. From the interviews it becomes clear that the tenants experience only little effect on energy empowerment aspects. The experiences of impact and choice are limited by the experience of competence and lack of meaningfulness of the option to buy. As the tenants state “this (rental) house is my own home allready” and thus buying the property doesn’t add that much. Unless there can be a financial benefit from owning by reducing the regular (monthly) costs. Only the tenants who actually became homeowners and the tenants who are considering the option to buy in the future, possibly experienced energy empowerment. The owner occupiers indeed experienced both authority and economical empowerment. What are the actual experienced empowerment effects of Te Woon (7) is evaluated based on a telephone survey among tenants. The effects of sale and the influence of the choice option within Te Woon are approached by means of energy and capacity empowerment. Making use of the capacity empowerment scales for control, self image and security, the experiences of tenants have been evaluated. The results illustrate that owner occupiers already experienced more capacity empowerment than the rental tenants. Owner occupiers experience higher levels of control and this is related to the higher education and incomes they already had. The rental tenants derive more security from the home and even more when they experience less control. The actual tenancy (owner occupied or rental) and the authority empowerment (property rights position) seem to be inversely related to capacity empowerment. The rental home is a safe haven for the tenants while owner occupiers the experience more freedom to act with their home (as a result of the property rights they have gained). The owner occupiers who decided to buy for the reduced price seem to have experienced empowerment in all the forms. This groups’ characteristics are similar to the rental tenants when it comes to income, education and general trust. The fact that they decided to buy (with a reduction) and feel like normal home owners, points at an empowerment effect in all four forms. All the home owners experience authority empowerment and all owner occupiers are likely to benefit financially (economical empowerment). The empowerment effect among rental tenants, however limited, could be present. Small indicators point at an empowerment effect through competence (energy empowerment) by means of improving their knowledge about tenancies and the financial schemes involved in owning a home. This indication is mostly found among tenants who consider buying in the future. Among the owner occupiers indicators for a disempowerment effect have been discovered as well. Their self image is relatively less positive compared to the rental tenants. This might be explained by a shift of reference group: from rental tenants to owner occupiers. It can be concluded that Te Woon enables the empowered to buy their rental dwelling rather than that Te Woon empowers its tenants. Income and experience of control along with meaningfulness and the expected impact, seem to be predictors for the choice to buy. Rather than that these are influenced by Te Woon. Considering client driven housing management it can be concluded that the most promising initiative, Te Woon, offers the tenants the option to actively be a part of housing policy. The transfer of (property) rights and duties from the housing association to the tenant offers the opportunity to be in control over the dwelling. The provisions in the contracts, such as reduced price and shared risks, cater for more differentiated homes in the housing stock. The owner occupiers profit both directly considering authority and economical empowerment. However, the contribution of Te Woon to energy and capacity empowerment remains diffuse. As a result, it is safe to conclude that the expectations are overexaggerated. The effects of Te Woon on, for example, the living quality in neighbourhoods are not tangible yet. Moreover, the tenants themselves have less high expectations. In relation to other initiatives in client driven housing management, some tentative conclusions can be drawn. Offering individual choices have proven to be limited to choices from a limited set of options. As a result and within the boundaries of regulations, there is no transfer of rights and duties and thus cannot be spoken of authority empowerment. At most there is a delegated (limited) choice that can be made by the tenants. The development of initiatives delegating control could be further explored. Just as experiments with collective control. The question remains what the goals of initiatives like these should be and whether these are realistic expectations of the initiatives.

Central to this dissertation are client driven housing management from housing associations in The Netherlands and the empowerment effects this management has on its tenants. The central issue includes what client driven housing management is (definition), in which ways this can be devised, what the envisioned effects are and which effects this management successfully accomplishes. These are answered by means of seven sub questions. The focal point of this research shifts from an exploration of all the initiatives that can be found in client driven housing management, to the empowerment effect for its tenants of ‘Te Woon’ as one of these initiatives. In this summary the answers to the seven sub questions are briefly given. What is client driven housing management (1) is answered by means of a literature study. In this dissertation client driven housing management is defined as “the management which actively involves the tenants in policy formulation and policy implementation concerning the housing quality, price and/or property rights of dwellings”. This definition includes initiatives ranging from kitchen improvement programmes offering a choice of designs, to programme formulation to improve neighbourhood quality. ‘Te Woon’ (also known as ‘the clients’ choice programme’) is included in this definition since it gives the tenants the opportunity to own a home and have control over the home. This has effect on the composition and quality of the (social) housing stock. Contrary to normal sales programmes, Te Woon offers the tenants to purchase a dwelling with a discount and offers them a shared risk (by splitting profit or loss at the moment of re-sale between housing association and owner). Moreover, the housing association is obliged to re-buy the home at the moment the tenant offers it. In this way the dwelling always re-enters the housing associations’ portfolio and doesn’t get lost from the social housing stock. How can client driven housing management initiatives be ordered and valuated (2) is answered by using different approaches to management and tenant influence devised from literature. Housing associations in the Netherlands are limited in their actions and operations by law (amongst others the BBSH). The law prescribes certain main tasks to housing associations and several policy domains have been used to determine the policy subjects that can be addressed. The influence the tenants can have on these subjects can be valuated by using the ladder of citizen participation. The ladder illustrates the grade to which the tenant has actually a say in matters and thus shares control with the housing association. In the most extreme case the tenant gets the full control over the dwelling by obtaining the property rights. Limitations are to be found in the legal system which prescribes the basic division of property rights between owners and users and in the laws concerning the rental housing market. Based on a theoretical exploration of the opportunities for the transfer of control from the housing association to the tenants by comparing the grades of citizen control with the policy domains, one domain proves to be promising. The policy domain of ‘dwelling purchase and sale’ offers the most opportunities to transfer control since in the extreme case the tenant could own its own dwelling, the tenant gets full property rights and thus transcends the ladder of citizen participation. The policy domain purchase and sale of dwellings thus offers the most opportunities to provide tenants with freedom, autonomy and personal development (empowerment). Which initiatives in client driven housing management can be found in the Dutch housing associations’ practice (3) is answered based on a survey amongst associations. The housing associations that participated reckoned every initiative that gave the tenant more than a single option to client driven housing management. The analysis of the initiatives mentioned by the housing associations showed that a few types of client driven housing management were numerous. Moreover, the analysis showed that the initiatives are rather limited to the housing policy domains concerning housing maintenance and improvement and purchase and sale of dwellings. The opportunities offered to the tenants have been analysed using participation grades. The initiatives aim to offer tenants individual choice, focused on the interior of the dwelling (kitchens etc.) and offer mostly a choice between options: delegated (and limited) choices. Within the domain of purchase and sale of dwellings (including especially Te Woon) individual choice to own is stimulated and provides with different initiatives sharing risk and offering reductions on sales prices. The initiatives aiming on the option to buy offer the best perspective on personal development by offering the opportunity of transferring full control to the tenant. All the other initiatives that were found transfer less control and offer a limited choice and limited control to the tenants. Which effects are envisioned as a result of client driven housing management (4) is answered through a literature review. The literature revealed a broad spectrum of effects ranging from housing quality and market effects to tenant empowerment and cultivating citizenship. Tenant empowerment in all her different forms is the core of this dissertation. Empowerment can be interpreted in notions of power. Power can point at authority, energy and capacity. Authority empowerment describes the rights and duties and lines up with the property rights. It describes what you are allowed to do with a dwelling. Energy empowerment describes the motivation to act, the willingness. Energy empowerment can be devised in meaningfulness (caring), choice (freedom of choice and availability of choice options), impact (the expected cause-effect relation, knowledge of results) and competence (feeling and being capable to act). Capacity empowerment describes the ability to act and can be measured in scales for control (influence on own life and circumstances), self image (self esteem) and security (feeling safe at home). Economical empowerment can be mentioned as a fourth form of empowerment. It is defined as the opportunity to profit. For example this can be by offering a reduction on the price thereby making the home affordable and providing the opportunity to save by means of the mortgage and to profit by means of selling at a higher price. The different forms of empowerment are interrelated. Within energy empowerment, capacity empowerment aspects are enclosed. Without the authority or the right to act, the opportunity to profit can be denied. But willing and feeling able to act and having the right to do so, are related as well: when someone thinks (s)he isn’t able to do something, this (negatively) influences the will to act. The choice option to own a dwelling is, theoretically speaking, again the most promising initiative within client driven housing management since it possibly touches upon the willingness, the abilities, the rights (to be allowed) and the possibility of profiting. What are the effects that housing associations aim for with Te Woon (5) is answered by means of interviewing housing associations’ staff. The motivation for the Te Woon initiative can be traced back to the ideals of the paternalistic housing associations: to educate people in housing. Nowadays this paternalistic view on housing of the housing associations shares importance with a (internal) financial motive. Housing associations (since they have been privatised) are in need of cash flow to keep their maintenance and redevelopment tasks going. The housing associations expect as an effect of Te Woon both financial revenues and tenant empowerment at the same time. The option to buy gives tenants the opportunity to control their dwelling and gain (some) control over their living environment. It should thereby lead to an improvement in the living quality in the neighbourhood and improve the independence of the tenants. However, the need to sell dwellings to generate cash flow for reinvestment, conflicts with the freedom of choice of the tenants. Housing associations are tempted to improve the amount of sold homes by putting pressure upon tenants to buy. Besides, the housing associations’ staff expects different short and long term effects from Te Woon. Tenant empowerment can be found in different forms as an envisioned effect (ranging from improving independence to improving participation and engagement and from personal development to improving their financial position). Other envisioned effects include a positive effect on the living quality in the neighbourhood, alongside with housing quality differentiation (both in homes as in tenants). Long term effects that are mentioned include an improvement in the general functioning of the housing market. What are the empowerment effects that tenants expect from Te Woon (6) is answered by means of explorative in depth interviews with tenants. Although tenants do expect effects of Te Woon, they do express hesitations and reservations in their expectations. Tenants do believe that owner occupiers take better care of their home and that sales will improve the living quality in the neighbourhood. However, they do not expect a swift change. In addition, they ask for a more active attitude from the housing association in the approach of problems in the living and neighbourhood quality and ask the association to speak up (in their name) towards the municipality. From the interviews it becomes clear that the tenants experience only little effect on energy empowerment aspects. The experiences of impact and choice are limited by the experience of competence and lack of meaningfulness of the option to buy. As the tenants state “this (rental) house is my own home allready” and thus buying the property doesn’t add that much. Unless there can be a financial benefit from owning by reducing the regular (monthly) costs. Only the tenants who actually became homeowners and the tenants who are considering the option to buy in the future, possibly experienced energy empowerment. The owner occupiers indeed experienced both authority and economical empowerment. What are the actual experienced empowerment effects of Te Woon (7) is evaluated based on a telephone survey among tenants. The effects of sale and the influence of the choice option within Te Woon are approached by means of energy and capacity empowerment. Making use of the capacity empowerment scales for control, self image and security, the experiences of tenants have been evaluated. The results illustrate that owner occupiers already experienced more capacity empowerment than the rental tenants. Owner occupiers experience higher levels of control and this is related to the higher education and incomes they already had. The rental tenants derive more security from the home and even more when they experience less control. The actual tenancy (owner occupied or rental) and the authority empowerment (property rights position) seem to be inversely related to capacity empowerment. The rental home is a safe haven for the tenants while owner occupiers the experience more freedom to act with their home (as a result of the property rights they have gained). The owner occupiers who decided to buy for the reduced price seem to have experienced empowerment in all the forms. This groups’ characteristics are similar to the rental tenants when it comes to income, education and general trust. The fact that they decided to buy (with a reduction) and feel like normal home owners, points at an empowerment effect in all four forms. All the home owners experience authority empowerment and all owner occupiers are likely to benefit financially (economical empowerment). The empowerment effect among rental tenants, however limited, could be present. Small indicators point at an empowerment effect through competence (energy empowerment) by means of improving their knowledge about tenancies and the financial schemes involved in owning a home. This indication is mostly found among tenants who consider buying in the future. Among the owner occupiers indicators for a disempowerment effect have been discovered as well. Their self image is relatively less positive compared to the rental tenants. This might be explained by a shift of reference group: from rental tenants to owner occupiers. It can be concluded that Te Woon enables the empowered to buy their rental dwelling rather than that Te Woon empowers its tenants. Income and experience of control along with meaningfulness and the expected impact, seem to be predictors for the choice to buy. Rather than that these are influenced by Te Woon. Considering client driven housing management it can be concluded that the most promising initiative, Te Woon, offers the tenants the option to actively be a part of housing policy. The transfer of (property) rights and duties from the housing association to the tenant offers the opportunity to be in control over the dwelling. The provisions in the contracts, such as reduced price and shared risks, cater for more differentiated homes in the housing stock. The owner occupiers profit both directly considering authority and economical empowerment. However, the contribution of Te Woon to energy and capacity empowerment remains diffuse. As a result, it is safe to conclude that the expectations are overexaggerated. The effects of Te Woon on, for example, the living quality in neighbourhoods are not tangible yet. Moreover, the tenants themselves have less high expectations. In relation to other initiatives in client driven housing management, some tentative conclusions can be drawn. Offering individual choices have proven to be limited to choices from a limited set of options. As a result and within the boundaries of regulations, there is no transfer of rights and duties and thus cannot be spoken of authority empowerment. At most there is a delegated (limited) choice that can be made by the tenants. The development of initiatives delegating control could be further explored. Just as experiments with collective control. The question remains what the goals of initiatives like these should be and whether these are realistic expectations of the initiatives.

Central to this dissertation are client driven housing management from housing associations in The Netherlands and the empowerment effects this management has on its tenants. The central issue includes what client driven housing management is (definition), in which ways this can be devised, what the envisioned effects are and which effects this management successfully accomplishes. These are answered by means of seven sub questions. The focal point of this research shifts from an exploration of all the initiatives that can be found in client driven housing management, to the empowerment effect for its tenants of ‘Te Woon’ as one of these initiatives. In this summary the answers to the seven sub questions are briefly given. What is client driven housing management (1) is answered by means of a literature study. In this dissertation client driven housing management is defined as “the management which actively involves the tenants in policy formulation and policy implementation concerning the housing quality, price and/or property rights of dwellings”. This definition includes initiatives ranging from kitchen improvement programmes offering a choice of designs, to programme formulation to improve neighbourhood quality. ‘Te Woon’ (also known as ‘the clients’ choice programme’) is included in this definition since it gives the tenants the opportunity to own a home and have control over the home. This has effect on the composition and quality of the (social) housing stock. Contrary to normal sales programmes, Te Woon offers the tenants to purchase a dwelling with a discount and offers them a shared risk (by splitting profit or loss at the moment of re-sale between housing association and owner). Moreover, the housing association is obliged to re-buy the home at the moment the tenant offers it. In this way the dwelling always re-enters the housing associations’ portfolio and doesn’t get lost from the social housing stock. How can client driven housing management initiatives be ordered and valuated (2) is answered by using different approaches to management and tenant influence devised from literature. Housing associations in the Netherlands are limited in their actions and operations by law (amongst others the BBSH). The law prescribes certain main tasks to housing associations and several policy domains have been used to determine the policy subjects that can be addressed. The influence the tenants can have on these subjects can be valuated by using the ladder of citizen participation. The ladder illustrates the grade to which the tenant has actually a say in matters and thus shares control with the housing association. In the most extreme case the tenant gets the full control over the dwelling by obtaining the property rights. Limitations are to be found in the legal system which prescribes the basic division of property rights between owners and users and in the laws concerning the rental housing market. Based on a theoretical exploration of the opportunities for the transfer of control from the housing association to the tenants by comparing the grades of citizen control with the policy domains, one domain proves to be promising. The policy domain of ‘dwelling purchase and sale’ offers the most opportunities to transfer control since in the extreme case the tenant could own its own dwelling, the tenant gets full property rights and thus transcends the ladder of citizen participation. The policy domain purchase and sale of dwellings thus offers the most opportunities to provide tenants with freedom, autonomy and personal development (empowerment). Which initiatives in client driven housing management can be found in the Dutch housing associations’ practice (3) is answered based on a survey amongst associations. The housing associations that participated reckoned every initiative that gave the tenant more than a single option to client driven housing management. The analysis of the initiatives mentioned by the housing associations showed that a few types of client driven housing management were numerous. Moreover, the analysis showed that the initiatives are rather limited to the housing policy domains concerning housing maintenance and improvement and purchase and sale of dwellings. The opportunities offered to the tenants have been analysed using participation grades. The initiatives aim to offer tenants individual choice, focused on the interior of the dwelling (kitchens etc.) and offer mostly a choice between options: delegated (and limited) choices. Within the domain of purchase and sale of dwellings (including especially Te Woon) individual choice to own is stimulated and provides with different initiatives sharing risk and offering reductions on sales prices. The initiatives aiming on the option to buy offer the best perspective on personal development by offering the opportunity of transferring full control to the tenant. All the other initiatives that were found transfer less control and offer a limited choice and limited control to the tenants. Which effects are envisioned as a result of client driven housing management (4) is answered through a literature review. The literature revealed a broad spectrum of effects ranging from housing quality and market effects to tenant empowerment and cultivating citizenship. Tenant empowerment in all her different forms is the core of this dissertation. Empowerment can be interpreted in notions of power. Power can point at authority, energy and capacity. Authority empowerment describes the rights and duties and lines up with the property rights. It describes what you are allowed to do with a dwelling. Energy empowerment describes the motivation to act, the willingness. Energy empowerment can be devised in meaningfulness (caring), choice (freedom of choice and availability of choice options), impact (the expected cause-effect relation, knowledge of results) and competence (feeling and being capable to act). Capacity empowerment describes the ability to act and can be measured in scales for control (influence on own life and circumstances), self image (self esteem) and security (feeling safe at home). Economical empowerment can be mentioned as a fourth form of empowerment. It is defined as the opportunity to profit. For example this can be by offering a reduction on the price thereby making the home affordable and providing the opportunity to save by means of the mortgage and to profit by means of selling at a higher price. The different forms of empowerment are interrelated. Within energy empowerment, capacity empowerment aspects are enclosed. Without the authority or the right to act, the opportunity to profit can be denied. But willing and feeling able to act and having the right to do so, are related as well: when someone thinks (s)he isn’t able to do something, this (negatively) influences the will to act. The choice option to own a dwelling is, theoretically speaking, again the most promising initiative within client driven housing management since it possibly touches upon the willingness, the abilities, the rights (to be allowed) and the possibility of profiting. What are the effects that housing associations aim for with Te Woon (5) is answered by means of interviewing housing associations’ staff. The motivation for the Te Woon initiative can be traced back to the ideals of the paternalistic housing associations: to educate people in housing. Nowadays this paternalistic view on housing of the housing associations shares importance with a (internal) financial motive. Housing associations (since they have been privatised) are in need of cash flow to keep their maintenance and redevelopment tasks going. The housing associations expect as an effect of Te Woon both financial revenues and tenant empowerment at the same time. The option to buy gives tenants the opportunity to control their dwelling and gain (some) control over their living environment. It should thereby lead to an improvement in the living quality in the neighbourhood and improve the independence of the tenants. However, the need to sell dwellings to generate cash flow for reinvestment, conflicts with the freedom of choice of the tenants. Housing associations are tempted to improve the amount of sold homes by putting pressure upon tenants to buy. Besides, the housing associations’ staff expects different short and long term effects from Te Woon. Tenant empowerment can be found in different forms as an envisioned effect (ranging from improving independence to improving participation and engagement and from personal development to improving their financial position). Other envisioned effects include a positive effect on the living quality in the neighbourhood, alongside with housing quality differentiation (both in homes as in tenants). Long term effects that are mentioned include an improvement in the general functioning of the housing market. What are the empowerment effects that tenants expect from Te Woon (6) is answered by means of explorative in depth interviews with tenants. Although tenants do expect effects of Te Woon, they do express hesitations and reservations in their expectations. Tenants do believe that owner occupiers take better care of their home and that sales will improve the living quality in the neighbourhood. However, they do not expect a swift change. In addition, they ask for a more active attitude from the housing association in the approach of problems in the living and neighbourhood quality and ask the association to speak up (in their name) towards the municipality. From the interviews it becomes clear that the tenants experience only little effect on energy empowerment aspects. The experiences of impact and choice are limited by the experience of competence and lack of meaningfulness of the option to buy. As the tenants state “this (rental) house is my own home allready” and thus buying the property doesn’t add that much. Unless there can be a financial benefit from owning by reducing the regular (monthly) costs. Only the tenants who actually became homeowners and the tenants who are considering the option to buy in the future, possibly experienced energy empowerment. The owner occupiers indeed experienced both authority and economical empowerment. What are the actual experienced empowerment effects of Te Woon (7) is evaluated based on a telephone survey among tenants. The effects of sale and the influence of the choice option within Te Woon are approached by means of energy and capacity empowerment. Making use of the capacity empowerment scales for control, self image and security, the experiences of tenants have been evaluated. The results illustrate that owner occupiers already experienced more capacity empowerment than the rental tenants. Owner occupiers experience higher levels of control and this is related to the higher education and incomes they already had. The rental tenants derive more security from the home and even more when they experience less control. The actual tenancy (owner occupied or rental) and the authority empowerment (property rights position) seem to be inversely related to capacity empowerment. The rental home is a safe haven for the tenants while owner occupiers the experience more freedom to act with their home (as a result of the property rights they have gained). The owner occupiers who decided to buy for the reduced price seem to have experienced empowerment in all the forms. This groups’ characteristics are similar to the rental tenants when it comes to income, education and general trust. The fact that they decided to buy (with a reduction) and feel like normal home owners, points at an empowerment effect in all four forms. All the home owners experience authority empowerment and all owner occupiers are likely to benefit financially (economical empowerment). The empowerment effect among rental tenants, however limited, could be present. Small indicators point at an empowerment effect through competence (energy empowerment) by means of improving their knowledge about tenancies and the financial schemes involved in owning a home. This indication is mostly found among tenants who consider buying in the future. Among the owner occupiers indicators for a disempowerment effect have been discovered as well. Their self image is relatively less positive compared to the rental tenants. This might be explained by a shift of reference group: from rental tenants to owner occupiers. It can be concluded that Te Woon enables the empowered to buy their rental dwelling rather than that Te Woon empowers its tenants. Income and experience of control along with meaningfulness and the expected impact, seem to be predictors for the choice to buy. Rather than that these are influenced by Te Woon. Considering client driven housing management it can be concluded that the most promising initiative, Te Woon, offers the tenants the option to actively be a part of housing policy. The transfer of (property) rights and duties from the housing association to the tenant offers the opportunity to be in control over the dwelling. The provisions in the contracts, such as reduced price and shared risks, cater for more differentiated homes in the housing stock. The owner occupiers profit both directly considering authority and economical empowerment. However, the contribution of Te Woon to energy and capacity empowerment remains diffuse. As a result, it is safe to conclude that the expectations are overexaggerated. The effects of Te Woon on, for example, the living quality in neighbourhoods are not tangible yet. Moreover, the tenants themselves have less high expectations. In relation to other initiatives in client driven housing management, some tentative conclusions can be drawn. Offering individual choices have proven to be limited to choices from a limited set of options. As a result and within the boundaries of regulations, there is no transfer of rights and duties and thus cannot be spoken of authority empowerment. At most there is a delegated (limited) choice that can be made by the tenants. The development of initiatives delegating control could be further explored. Just as experiments with collective control. The question remains what the goals of initiatives like these should be and whether these are realistic expectations of the initiatives.

En el capítulo I, se examina el rendimiento de los activos financieros que representan las "mejores ideas" de los gestores de los fondos de inversión. Las inversiones para las que un gestor activo augura un buen rendimiento obtienen mejor retorno de mercado, asi como el resto de inversiones en sus carteras. En el capítulo II, se muestra explicitamente que los gestores que concentran sus carteras en un número reducido de activos, superan reiteradamente sus benchmarks y otros fondos más diversificados. Esta diferencia de rendimiento se puede explicar gracias a las diferencias en la exposición a factores de riesgo valorados por el mercado y al mayor talento de los gestores que se centran en invertir en activos de alta incertidumbre. En el capítulo III, se estudia la información contenida en las transacciones de activos y se muestra que las decisiones recientes de los gestores predicen el rendimiento futuro de las inversiones. Mientras que las compras llevadas a cabo por gestores con una habilidad superior se asocian a un rendimiento futuro anormalmente positivo, los gestores poco hábiles cometen errores de forma sistemática en la selección y en las transacciones de activos.
In Chapter I, we examine the performance of stocks that represent mutual fund managers' "best ideas". The stock that active managers display the most conviction towards ex-ante, significantly outperforms the market, as well as the other stocks in those managers' portfolios. In Chapter II, I explicitly show that managers, who concentrate their portfolios into a small number of stocks, consistently beat their benchmarks and their more diversified peers. This performance gap can be explained by differing portfolio exposures towards priced risk factors as well as stronger abilities of concentrated managers when investing in stocks with high uncertainty of information. In Chapter III, I study the information content of portfolio rebalances by mutual fund managers and show that their recent trading decisions predict future stock returns. While purchases by skilled managers are associated with positive future abnormal performance, unskilled managers systematically commit errors in the selection and trading of stocks.

In Chapter 1 I investigate the economic importance of correlation in mutual fund flows for funds with overlapping portfolio positions. I illustrate theoretically that commonality in trading by funds due to flow correlation influences the optimal portfolio. Furthermore, I show that the expected return from an asset for a specific agent is conditional on correlation of this particular asset holder’s flows with his peers. Finally, I derive a theoretical upper bound of optimal flow correlation and hypothesize the existence of at least one optimal equilibrium outcome for any combination of pairwise fund flow correlations. Empirically, I introduce a measure of portfolio adjusted flow correlation and find that co-movement in flows can significantly deteriorate fund performance in the long-run, by about 1.4% annually between peer funds with high and low correlation, adjusted for style. Finally, I find that around one third of US mutual funds holds non-optimal portfolios as far as dynamic liquidity from correlated trading patterns is concerned. The research in Chapter 2 presents evidence for the existence of differences in asset beta risk in the liquidity cross-section of stocks. I argue that because of differences in liquidity (or trading cost), most trading activity is concentrated on the subset of liquid assets. In the presence of systematic wealth shocks this leads to an increase in beta risk for the liquid asset class beyond their true level of risk from the underlying dividend process with regard to the market risk factor. Vice-versa, the risk of illiquid assets becomes understated. Moreover, it is argued that a reduction of trading cost in the cross-section will reduce such differences and lead to a convergence of risk factor estimates towards the true value of underlying risk. Empirical evidence using data surrounding the tick-reduction event at the New York Stock Exchange is supporting this hypothesis. I find that beta estimates for liquid assets exceed their illiquid peers, while the difference in beta between the groups is significantly reduced after the exogenous trading cost reduction due to the tick-change event. In Chapter 3 I investigate asset liquidity surrounding fire-sale events by mutual funds. I develop revised method for identifying liquidity-driven sales. I find empirical evidence of both front running and liquidity provision surrounding liquidity-driven fire-sale events. Applying my identification method for sample selection I find significantly faster rates of return reversal compared to previous literature. Moreover, I show that asset liquidity measures return to their intrinsic values very shorty after a fire-sale. Finally, I show that a trading strategy of liquidity provision by outsiders provides economically significant returns.
En el Capítulo 1 investigo la importancia económica de la correlación entre los flujos de fondos relativos a fondos de inversión con carteras similares. Demuestro de forma teórica que la similitud entre las estrategias de trading de distintos fondos de inversión causadas por la alta correlación entre sus flujos de fondos influye en las decisiones optimas sobre carteras de inversión. De forma adicional, demuestro que el retorno esperado de los activos esta condicionado a la correlación de las corrientes de fon- dos con sus competidores. Finalmente, derivo el limite superior teórico de correlación y presento la hipótesis de existencia de una cartera ́optima para cada posible matriz de covarianzas. Introduzco una medida de correlación de flujos de fondos, ajustada por la cartera de inversión. Empíricamente, encuentro una caída del rendimiento a largo plazo de un 1.4% anualmente entre fondos de inversión con estilo similar de inversión. Adema ́s, demuestro que un tercio de los fondos de inversión en los EEUU adoptan carteras de inversión sub-óptimas con respeto a la dinámica de la liquidez derivada de la cercanía en sus estrategias de inversión. En el Capítulo 2 presento evidencia empírica de que existen diferencias en el riesgo beta de los activos en la sección cruzada de la liquidez de las acciones. Las diferencias de liquidez o de costes de transacción hacen que los agentes centren su actividad de trading sobre la clase de los activos m ́as líquidos. Cuando existe el riesgo de shocks a la riqueza sistémicos, esto genera un incremento en el riesgo beta para la clase de los activos m ́as líquidos en exceso del valor real del riesgo que se deriva de sus dividendos con relación al factor de riesgo de mercado. Y vice-versa, el riesgo de los activos ilíquidos se subestima. Una reducción uniforme en costes de transacción puede reducir dicha diferencia entre las be- tas. Demuestro de forma empírica que esto es as ́ı, utilizando datos sobre precios de activos durante el per ́ıodo de cambio de la forma de contabilizar los precios que ocurrió en el New York Stock Exchange. Demuestro que la reducción de costes puede reducir la diferencia en la beta entre activos líquidos y ilíquidos. En el Capítulo 3 estudio cambios en la liquidez de los activos durante ventas masivas por parte de fondos de inversión. Introduzco una innovación en la metodología de identificación de ventas por razones de liquidez frente a ventas por razones de valoración. Encuentro evidencia empírica de pre-venta de activos y provisión de liquidez durante de las ventas masivas por razones de liquidez. Utilizando mi método de identificación de ventas por razones de liquidez encuentro reversión de rendimientos negativos significativamente m ́as rápida que la que habían encontrado estudios anteriores. Demuestro también que las medidas de liquidez de los activos vuelven a sus valores intrínsecos inmediatamente después de las liquidaciones. Finalmente, demuestro que una estrategia de provisión de liquidez genera rendimientos positivos económicamente significativos.

Cette recherche étudie le comportement des ménages investisseurs qui utilisent un robo-advisor français à travers quatre articles empiriques. Dans la première étude, les investisseurs qui épargnent régulièrement épargnent moins à moyen et long terme que ceux qui n'épargnent que sporadiquement, ce qui remet en question l'universalité de ce conseil financier populaire. Dans la deuxième étude, les investisseurs actualisent le risque de leur portefeuille au fil du temps d'une manière qui ne reproduit pas toujours les résultats obtenus avec des portefeuilles statiques, ce qui remet en question la mesure dans laquelle la recherche sur les portefeuilles statiques devrait éclairer les conseils pratiques sur les portefeuilles dynamiques. Dans la troisième étude, les investisseurs ont globalement moins épargné pendant la pandémie de Covid-19 et ont actualisé différemment leurs plans à long et à court terme, comblant ainsi une lacune à laquelle les données au niveau de marché ne peuvent pas répondre et donnant un aperçu de la manière dont les investisseurs pourraient réagir aux crises à venir. Dans la quatrième étude, les parents investissent pour leurs enfants de la même manière que pour eux-mêmes et ouvrent un peu plus de comptes pour leurs fils que pour leurs filles, ce qui met en évidence les domaines dans lesquels les gestionnaires de patrimoine doivent mieux informer les familles sur la manière de planifier les finances de leur ménage. Dans l'ensemble, cette recherche documente de nombreux écarts comportementaux au niveau microéconomique par rapport à la théorie financière traditionnelle et démontre que la recherche scientifique utilisant des données sectorielles peut donner lieu à des découvertes surprenantes
This research studies the behavior of household investors who use a French robo-advisor across four empirical papers. In the first study, investors who save regularly save less in the medium- to long-run than those who only save sporadically, calling into question the universality of this popular financial advice. In the second study, investors update their portfolio risk over time in a way that does not always replicate findings from static portfolios, challenging the extent to which research on static portfolios should inform practical advice about dynamic portfolios. In the third study, investors saved less overall during the Covid-19 pandemic and updated their long- and short-term plans differently, addressing a gap that market-level data cannot answer and providing insights into how investors may react to future crises. In the fourth study, parents invest for their children similar to how they invest for themselves and open slightly more accounts for sons than for daughters, highlighting areas where wealth managers must better inform families about how to plan their household finances. Overall, this research documents many micro-level behavioral departures from traditional finance theory and demonstrates how scientific research using industry data can yield surprising discoveries