Gender differences in the nordic mutual fund industry empirical evidence from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden

Abstract

In this thesis, we investigate gender difference across Nordic mutual fund managers. We analyse a data set free of survivorship bias, consisting of 430 Nordic singlemanaged mutual funds in the period January 2005 to June 2017, where we look at differences in risk-adjusted performance, risk-taking behavior and investment style caused by the managers gender. Examining previous literature, we hypothesize that female- and male mutual fund managers perform differently. Furthermore, we expect females to behave more risk-averse, and follow a different investment style than their male counterparts. By utilizing multiple methodologies to ensure robust results, we find no support for our hypotheses. Hence, we document that the mutual fund manager market in the Nordics is efficient with respect to that one cannot achieve abnormal returns by investing in funds based on the gender of the fund managers. Furthermore, our findings suggest that female- and male mutual fund managers share the same investment style and risk propensity.