Essays on the U.S. mutual fund industry

This thesis investigates three topics related to the research area of mutual funds in the U.S. market. Our first essay analyzes flow patterns in retail corporate bond mutual funds across the direct- and broker-sold segments. While a concave flow-to-performance relation (outflows are more sensitive to poor performance) is documented, such a relation exists only among broker-sold funds and increases with fund and market illiquidity. The concave relation is stronger among broker-sold funds with higher distribution costs, where brokers have greater incentives to advise redemptions and investors are more reliant on financial advice. Finally, outflows from broker-sold funds due to poor performance predict inflows to other broker-sold funds during normal time and predict inflows to direct-sold funds during crisis time. Furthermore, our second essay investigates the impact of ETF ownership on the firms’ propensity to issue seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) and the post-market performance of these SEOs. We document that ETF ownership is positively related to SEO propensity, consistent with the market timing explanation. We also show that this positive relationship is more prevalent among firms that are younger, smaller, unprofitable, and non-dividend-paying. Finally, we find that ETF ownership reduces the severity of SEO underperformance over both the short- and long-run. Our third essay investigates whether multi-fund managers engage in portfolio pumping activity. we examine that portfolio pumping activity is prevalent among multi-fund managers at the end of year and quarter. Moreover, these fund managers are more likely to inflate the value of funds who hold small and less liquid securities. Finally, we investigate that portfolio pumping behavior among multi-fund managers might be motivated by the convex relationship between fund flow and fund performance and the spillover effects

Prediction of mechanical performance of acetylated MDF at different humid conditions

Change of relative humidity (RH) in surrounding environment can greatly affect the physical and mechanical properties of wood-based panels. Commercially produced acetylated medium density fiberboard (MDF), Medite Tricoya®, was used in this study to predict strength and stiffness under varying humid conditions by separating samples in parallel (//) and perpendicular (⊥) to the sanding directions. Thickness swelling, static moduli of elasticity (MOEstat) and rupture (MORstat), and internal bond (IB) strength were measured at three different humid conditions, i.e., dry (35% RH), standard (65% RH) and wet (85% RH). Internal bond (IB) strength was also measured after accelerated aging test. A resonance method was used to determine dynamic modulus of elasticity (MOEdyn) at the aforementioned humid conditions. Linear regression and finite element (FE) analyses were used to predict the MDF’s static bending behavior. Results showed that dimensional stability, MOEstat, MORstat and IB strength decreased significantly with an increase in RH. No reduction of IB strength was observed after 426 h of accelerated aging test. A multiple regression model was established using MOEdyn and RH values to predict MOEstat and MORstat. In both directions (// and ⊥), highly significant relationships were observed. The predicted and the measured values of MOEstat and MORstat were satisfactorily related to each other, which indicated that the developed model can be effectively used for evaluating the strength and stiffness of Medite Tricoya® MDF samples at any humid condition. Percent errors of two different simulation techniques (standard and extended FE method) showed highly efficient way of simulating the MDF structures with low fidelity

Energy‐Efficient Oil–Water Separation of Biomimetic Copper Membrane with Multiscale Hierarchical Dendritic Structures

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138424/1/smll201701121-sup-0001-S1.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138424/2/smll201701121_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138424/3/smll201701121.pd

Study on Oil Pressure Characteristics and Trajectory Tracking Control in Shift Process of Wet-Clutch for Electric Vehicles

Accurate control of oil pressure of wet-clutch is of great importance for improving shift quality. Based on dynamic models of two-gear planetary transmission and hydraulic control system, a trajectory tracking model of oil pressure was built by sliding mode control method. An experiment was designed to verify the validity of hydraulic control system, through which the relationship between duty cycle of on-off valve and oil pressure of clutch was determined. The tracking effect was analyzed by simulation. Results showed that oil pressure could follow well the optimal trajectory and the shift quality was effectively improved

ETF ownership and seasoned equity offerings

This article investigates the impact of exchange-traded fund (ETF) ownership on seasoned equity offerings (SEOs). We find that increases to firms’ ETF ownership is positively related to their propensity to conduct an SEO. ETF ownership is also associated with less negative SEO announcement returns, smaller discounts, and better long-run stock returns. Our evidence is consistent with equity issuance following investor demand for stocks driven by greater participation in ETFs, suggesting a possible alternative source of market timing opportunity

Vector spectrometer with Hertz-level resolution and super-recognition capability

High-resolution optical spectrometers are crucial in revealing intricate characteristics of signals, determining laser frequencies, measuring physical constants, identifying substances, and advancing biosensing applications. Conventional spectrometers, however, often grapple with inherent trade-offs among spectral resolution, wavelength range, and accuracy. Furthermore, even at high resolution, resolving overlapping spectral lines during spectroscopic analyses remains a huge challenge. Here, we propose a vector spectrometer with ultrahigh resolution, combining broadband optical frequency hopping, ultrafine microwave-photonic scanning, and vector detection. A programmable frequency-hopping laser was developed, facilitating a sub-Hz linewidth and Hz-level frequency stability, an improvement of four and six orders of magnitude, respectively, compared to those of state-of-the-art tunable lasers. We also designed an asymmetric optical transmitter and receiver to eliminate measurement errors arising from modulation nonlinearity and multi-channel crosstalk. The resultant vector spectrometer exhibits an unprecedented frequency resolution of 2 Hz, surpassing the state-of-the-art by four orders of magnitude, over a 33-nm range. Through high-resolution vector analysis, we observed that group delay information enhances the separation capability of overlapping spectral lines by over 47%, significantly streamlining the real-time identification of diverse substances. Our technique fills the gap in optical spectrometers with resolutions below 10 kHz and enables vector measurement to embrace revolution in functionality.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figure