Mutual fund flows and fluctuations in credit and business cycles

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ben-Rephael, Azi; Choi, Jaewon; Goldstein, Itay
• 署名单位: Rutgers University System; Rutgers University New Brunswick; Rutgers University Newark; University of Illinois System; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Yonsei University; University of Pennsylvania
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-405X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2020.07.004
• 发表日期: 2021
• 页码: 84-108
• 关键词: Credit cycle; business cycle; MUTUAL FUND FLOWS; High-yield bonds; Investor demand; Leading indicator

摘要

Several measures of credit-market booms are known to precede downturns in real economic activity. We offer an early indicator for all known measures of credit booms. Our measure is based on intra-family flow shifts towards high-yield bond mutual funds. It predicts indicators such as growth in financial intermediary balance sheets, increase in shares of high-yield bond issuers, and downturns of various measures of credit spreads. It also directly predicts the business cycle by positively predicting GDP growth and negatively predicting unemployment. Our results provide support for the investor demand-based narrative of credit cycles and can be useful for policymakers. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.