Fintech Platforms and Mutual Fund Distribution
研究中国金融科技平台如何通过集中信息流加剧投资者追逐业绩的行为，并促使基金经理增加风险承担以提升排名。
We document a novel platform effect caused by the emergence of fintech platforms in the intermediation of financial products. In China, platform distributions of mutual funds emerged in 2012 and grew quickly into a formidable presence. Utilizing the staggered entrance of funds onto platforms, we find a marked increase of performance chasing driven by the centralized information flow unique to fintech platforms. This pattern is further confirmed using proprietary data from a top platform. Examining the platform impact on fund managers, we find that incentivized by the amplified performance chasing, fund managers increase risk-taking to enhance their probability of getting onto the top ranking. This paper was accepted by William Cong, finance. Funding: X. Lu acknowledges financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 72003126]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.01966 .