The Journal of Finance

Information Immobility and the Home Bias Puzzle

Published: 05/20/2009   |   DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6261.2009.01462.x

STIJN VAN NIEUWERBURGH, LAURA VELDKAMP

Many argue that home bias arises because home investors can predict home asset payoffs more accurately than foreigners can. But why does global information access not eliminate this asymmetry? We model investors, endowed with a small home information advantage, who choose what information to learn before they invest. Surprisingly, even when home investors can learn what foreigners know, they choose not to: Investors profit more from knowing information others do not know. Learning amplifies information asymmetry. The model matches patterns of local and industry bias, foreign investments, portfolio outperformance, and asset prices. Finally, we propose new avenues for empirical research.

Time‐Varying Fund Manager Skill

Published: 07/26/2013   |   DOI: 10.1111/jofi.12084

MARCIN KACPERCZYK, STIJN VAN NIEUWERBURGH, LAURA VELDKAMP

We propose a new definition of skill as general cognitive ability to pick stocks or time the market. We find evidence for stock picking in booms and market timing in recessions. Moreover, the same fund managers that pick stocks well in expansions also time the market well in recessions. These fund managers significantly outperform other funds and passive benchmarks. Our results suggest a new measure of managerial ability that weighs a fund's market timing more in recessions and stock picking more in booms. The measure displays more persistence than either market timing or stock picking alone and predicts fund performance.