The investment behavior of China-connected mutual funds in the pandemic: Information advantage through operational link
研究美国股票型共同基金中通过持有与中国有运营联系的美国公司而间接暴露于中国风险的基金，发现这些基金在疫情爆发时风险更低、异常收益更高，其信息优势体现在交易被模仿、择时选股能力更强，且基金经理的族裔背景是关键渠道。
Focusing on the origination of the COVID-19 outbreak in China, we examine the risk-taking behavior and performance of U.S. equity mutual funds indirectly exposed to China by holding U.S. firms with operational links to the country. We find that China-connected funds are associated with lower risk and higher abnormal returns at the outbreak of the pandemic. The information advantage underlying the outperformance of these funds is reflected in their trades being mimicked by that of other funds, and in the superior timing and stock picking ability of managers. These funds also maintain higher stock liquidity positions and better portfolio diversification during the pandemic. We further identify that fund managers' ethnic origin is the underlying channel for the outperformance of China-connected funds. Our results are robust across a wide range of tests.