ESSAYS ON MUTUAL FUND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

In this study, insights from recent international mutual fund evaluation literature are utilized to further test the performance of Finnish mutual funds. Using a sample free of survivorship bias, this study compares the results from performance evaluation from unconditional versus conditional models. It is concluded that the abnormal returns are rather insensitive to the chosen model, while timing ability and especially rankings after timing ability are more model dependent. Also the short term persistence of Finnish stock, bond, and balanced funds is investigated.The study contributes to the fund literature by looking at performance persistence on more a disaggregated level than what has been done before. For all fund types, the prior winners are found to on the average have outperformed the prior losers on six month investment horizons.