Management Compensation and the Performance of Mutual Funds

This paper examines the mutual fund market as a market for the sale of management services using an unbalanced panel of 860 US equity funds over the 1976-1993 period. From among the performance measures for which investors have the necessary information to compute, we find that the Jensen measure best explains the change in market shares over time. It is found, however, that investors actually value the systematic component of risk more than indicated by the use of Jensen's performance measure. Our results also suggest that investors in load funds are less responsive to both components of performance (risk and return) than are investors in no-load funds. Investors, moreover, value recent past performance differently for funds with different attributes. An important result of the paper relating to the incentives provided with the widely used fixed-fee compensation schemes is that past fund performance influences individual investment decisions and hence future net asset values of funds, implying strong incentives for managers to increase their performance and by doing so, their compensation.

Ownership, Risk and Performance of Mutual Fund Management Companies

This paper compares the performance of mutual funds managed by publicly-traded management companies with those managed by private management companies. We find that publicly-traded management companies invest in riskier assets and charge higher management fees than do the funds managed by private management companies. The risk-adjusted returns of the mutual funds managed by publicly-traded management companies are also lower than those of the mutual funds managed by private management companies. This finding is consistent with both a risk spreading and agency cost argument. The paper also shows that the idiosyncratic risk of the publicly-traded management company's stock significantly differs from the idiosyncratic risk of the assets they manage, suggesting that previous research using the stock's idiosyncratic risk as a proxy for the idiosyncratic risk of the company's assets to study the determinants of publicly-traded companies' ownership concentration may be misleading.

The Determinants of Management Expenses

This paper develops a model which explains the determinants of the management expenses charged by U.S. equity funds. The study shows that for high quality managers, an increase in quality is associated with higher fees. In contrast, as the quality of the lower quality managers deteriorates, their fees increase. A non-linear negative relationship is found between the size of a fund and its management expenses. Economies of scope are also shown to exist between the number of funds within a mutual fund complex and the management expenses charged investors. Finally, while 12b-1 fees have been thought of as a substitute for load charges, this paper suggests that they are complements.

State-Level and County-Level Estimates of Health Care Costs Associated with Food Insecurity.

IntroductionFood insecurity, or uncertain access to food because of limited financial resources, is associated with higher health care expenditures. However, both food insecurity prevalence and health care spending vary widely in the United States. To inform public policy, we estimated state-level and county-level health care expenditures associated with food insecurity.MethodsWe used linked 2011-2013 National Health Interview Survey/Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data (NHIS/MEPS) data to estimate average health care costs associated with food insecurity, Map the Meal Gap data to estimate state-level and county-level food insecurity prevalence (current though 2016), and Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care data to account for local variation in health care prices and intensity of use. We used targeted maximum likelihood estimation to estimate health care costs associated with food insecurity, separately for adults and children, adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics.ResultsAmong NHIS/MEPS participants, 10,054 adults and 3,871 children met inclusion criteria. Model estimates indicated that food insecure adults had annual health care expenditures that were $1,834 (95$1,073-2,595, P < .001) higher than food secure adults. For children, estimates were 80 higher, but this finding was not significant (95% CI, -$171 to$329, P = .53). The median annual health care cost associated with food insecurity was $687,041,000 (25th percentile,$239,675,000; 75th percentile, $1,140,291,000). The median annual county-level health care cost associated with food insecurity was$4,433,000 (25th percentile, $1,774,000; 75th percentile,$11,267,000). Cost variability was related primarily to food insecurity prevalence.ConclusionsHealth care expenditures associated with food insecurity vary substantially across states and counties. Food insecurity policies may be important mechanisms to contain health care expenditures

Structure and dynamics of water at the Pt(111) interface: Molecular dynamics study

We prescribe an analytical form of the interaction potential between rigid water and a rigid platinum metal surface, which takes into account the surface symmetry and corrugation. Using this potential we perform a molecular dynamics computer simulation on water lamina restricted by two PtC 111) surfaces and investigate the structure and dynamics of water at the Pt interface. At 300 K the water layer adjacent to the metal surface displays solid-like properties. Patches of ice-like structure embedded in this layer are observed in the simulation. The next two layers of water display ordering similar to ice-I. Beyond these three layers the structure and dynamics of water are bulk-like

A Convenient Synthesis of L-α-Vinylglycine from L-Homoserine Lactone

A procedure for the synthesis ofL-IX-vinylglycine from L-homoserine lactone is described. The route developed is convenient (only one chromatography step is required) and efficient (72 %; ≥ 95 % optical yield over 4 steps). Key features include the use of acid-labile protecting groups for the amino (Boc) and carboxyl (diphenylmethyl ester) groups, and the use of the phenylselenolate equivalent derived from sodium borohydride and diphenyl diselenide for L-homoserine lactone cleavage

Enantiomerically Enriched α-Methyl Amino Acids. Use of an Acyclic, Chiral Alanine-Derived Dianion with a High Diastereofacial Bias.

Hindered esters derived from N-benzoylalanine and the following chiral alcohols have been synthesized: (1) (−)-isopinocampheol; (2) (−)-trans-2-phenylcyclohexanol and (3) (−)-8-phenylmenthol. Sequential treatment of these esters with LDA (1.2 equiv.) and n-butyllithium (2.4 equiv.) at −78°C in THF generates the corresponding chiral dianions. Alkylation of each of these with benzyl bromide reveals that only the (−)-8-phenylmenthyl auxiliary confers a high diastereofacial bias upon its derivative dianion. In fact, that dianion (6) consistently displays diastereomeric ratios in the range of 89:11 to 94:6 for alkylations with a spectrum of nine alkyl halides. If one recrystallization step is included, a single diastereomeric product may be obtained, as is demonstrated for the benzylation of 6. Of particular note, the alkylation with 3,4-bis(tert-butyldimethylsilyloxy)benzyl bromide (18) (94:6 diast. ratio, 72% yield) constitutes a formal synthesis of the clinically important antihypertensive (S)-α-methyl-DOPA (Aldomet), in enantiomerically enriched from. In all cases studied, yields are markedly improved, yet diastereoselectivities unchanged, by the addition of 10% HMPA to the reaction milieu. The (−)-8-phenylmenthol chiral auxiliary is conveniently recovered via ester cleavage with KO2/18-crown-6, following alkylation. Complete deprotection affords enantiomerically enriched (S)-α-methyl amino acids, in all cases examined, indicating that dianion 6 displays a substantial bias in favor of si face alkylation. This sense of diastereoselection is consistent with a chain-extended, internal chelate model for the reactive conformation of the dianion

Impact of Food Insecurity and SNAP Participation on Healthcare Utilization and Expenditures

We tested three hypothesis related to food insecurity and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), America’s largest anti-food insecurity program. We hypothesized that 1)food insecurity would be associated with increased healthcare expenditures, 2)food insecurity would be associated with increased use of emergency department and inpatient services, and 3) SNAP participation would be associated with lower subsequent healthcare expenditures. We used data from the 2011 National Health Interview Survey linked to the 2012-13 Medical Expenditures Panel Survey. We used zero-inflated negative binomial regression to test the relationship between food insecurity and healthcare cost and use. We evaluated the association between SNAP participation and healthcare expenditures using generalized linear regression modeling, near/far matching instrumental variable analysis using state-level variation in SNAP policy as our instrument, and augmented inverse probability weighting. Those with food insecurity had significantly greater estimated mean annualized healthcare expenditures ($6,072 vs.$4,208, p\u3c0.0001), an extra $1,863 in healthcare expenditure per year, or$77.5 billion in additional healthcare expenditure annually nation-wide. Further, food insecurity was associated with significantly greater emergency department visits (Incidence Rate Ratio [IRR] 1.47, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 1.12 – 1.93), inpatient hospitalizations (IRR 1.47, 95% CI 1.14 – 1.88), and days hospitalized (IRR 1.54, 95% CI 1.06 – 2.24). Across several analytic approaches, we found that SNAP participation was associated with reduced subsequent healthcare expenditures (best estimate: -$1,409; 95$2,694 to -$125). We conclude that food insecurity is associated with increased healthcare costs and use, and SNAP participation is associated with lower subsequent healthcare expenditures

Synthesis and Magnetic Properties of Cobalt Ferrite (CoFe2O4) Nanoparticles Prepared by Wet Chemical Route

Magnetic nanoparticles of cobalt ferrite have been synthesized by wet chemical method using stable ferric and cobalt salts with oleic acid as the surfactant. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) confirmed the formation of single phase cobalt ferrite nanoparticles in the range 15-48nm depending on the annealing temperature and time. The size of the particles increases with annealing temperature and time while the coercivity goes through a maximum, peaking at around 28nm. A very large coercivity (10.5kOe) is observed on cooling down to 77K while typical blocking effects are observed below about 260K. The high field moment is observed to be small for smaller particles and approaches the bulk value for large particles.Comment: 18 pages, accepted in JMMM, (May, 2006