Master's Thesis from the year 2016 in the subject Economics - Finance, grade: 1,3, University of Regensburg (Centre of Finance), language: English, abstract: Financial markets are as complex as ever due to an accelerating development in the last decades. Especially evaluations of mutual fund performance have been a subject of interest since the introduction of financial services. In this thesis, a study on the performance of mutual funds investing in German equity from July 1995 to June 2015 is conducted. The aim is to find out if fund managers have sufficient skill to generate risk adjusted return in order to cover the cost imposed on the investors. Another purpose is to provide investors with relevant results. Inter alia, Jensen one-factor, Fama and French three-factor and the Carhart four-factor model are used as different benchmark models for performance. Paired bootstrap simulations suggest that, net of cost, a small fraction of fund managers do have sufficient skill to cover cost. For the bottom ranked funds, there is statistical evidence that their poor performance is caused by bad management, rather than by bad luck. The results for gross returns show that there is an unneglectable fraction of fund managers with good performance not due to luck. Compared to net returns, there is stronger evidence of skill, negative as well as positive. Form an investor’s point of view it seems rather beneficial to invest in passively managed vehicles. High costs eat into the return, and they are the main reason why the majority of actively managed funds end up with sub-par performance.

Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 7.5, Maastricht University, language: English, abstract: The following study examines the performance of mutual funds investing in small cap companies in the period from 1990 until 2013. Therefore, funds investing in small companies in Germany are tested on their ability to deliver risk-adjusted abnormal returns. The returns are risk-adjusted according to Fama French (1996) three-factor model, Carhart four-factor model and the liquidity adjusted five-factor model of Pastor and Stambaugh (2003). A separate examination of the internet crisis 2000 until 2003 and the financial crisis period 2008 until 2013 is done, to assess the ability of fund managers in isolation to examine their results in situations when their skills are most needed. On average, I conclude that fund managers, investing in the small capitalization segment in Germany, are not able to outperform the market even before fees.

We examine the risk-adjusted performance of open-end mutual funds which invest mainly in German stocks. After briefly discussing the institutional environment in which these funds operate, we focus on the benchmark problem and the risk adjustment problem. Our data set includes all German funds sold to the public in 1972, our performance analysis covers the time period 1973 to 1998. In our empirical analysis, we first look at the rates of return of individual funds and at the unweighted average rates of return of all funds in our sample. When we apply the Sharpe and Jensen measure to the latter time series in the traditional way, the funds underperform the appropriate benchmarks by approximately 1.5% per year, which is significant both from the statistical and the economic perspective. Applying the Sharpe and the Jensen measure in the traditional way creates a bias from the perspective of long-term investors, because the analysis is based on the arithmetic, not the geometric mean return. To avoid this bias we look, in a second step, at the returns of investors who risk adjust their fund investments ex-ante by borrowing or lending with the objective, that the future risk of his levered portfolio matches that of the chosen benchmark. When we again apply the Sharpe and the Jensen measure to the unweighted average rates of return, the underperformance is reduced by 40%. For large funds, on the average, the underperformance is less than for small funds. When we look at the value-weighted means of individual fund returns, the underperformance nearly disappears.

This paper provides new evidence of the macroeconomic effects of public investment in advanced economies. Using public investment forecast errors to identify the causal effect of government investment in a sample of 17 OECD economies since 1985 and model simulations, the paper finds that increased public investment raises output, both in the short term and in the long term, crowds in private investment, and reduces unemployment. Several factors shape the macroeconomic effects of public investment. When there is economic slack and monetary accommodation, demand effects are stronger, and the public-debt-to-GDP ratio may actually decline. Public investment is also more effective in boosting output in countries with higher public investment efficiency and when it is financed by issuing debt.

A fully updated guide to equity style management Pioneered by Nobel laureate William Sharpe, equity style management is derived from a correlation analysis of various equity style categories, such as value, growth, small cap, large cap and foreign stocks. In the Third Edition of The Handbook of Equity Style Management, twenty contributors from industry and academia help readers understand various equity style management issues, including equity style indices, different approaches to equity style measurement, foreign stock investing, tactical style management, behavioral aspects of equity style, and equity style benchmarks for manager selection and performance attribution. This updated edition gives readers the rationale behind equity style management, and shows how new strategies can be used to manage risk and improve returns.

The Greens have been not only a political force and social conscience for Germany before reunification and after but also an inspiration to political groups and movements in many other countries. The Greens have raised the issues of ecology, gender, and grassroots democracy in protest against government. They have also had the rare opportunity to try converting themselves into a political party that works within the system. This is a book about their paradoxical situation and about the dilemmas all advocates of change face when they become powerful enough to negotiate with the status quo. The critical essays by German social scientists and activists also provide a detailed picture of the dynamics of the German Greens—where their support has come from, The nature of the competing factions, And The place of feminism. The editors provide a substantial introduction. The flavor and texture of the Greens—including their raucous public arguments and their innovative campaign tactics—are suggested by the political posters included in the book and by a whole section of primary documents. The documents And The essays (except for one originally written in English) have been translated from German. The result is to make available to English-speaking readers a view of a complex movement whose very name and color have become synonymous with social action in favor of the environment And The empowerment of people. Author note:Margit Mayeris Professor of Politics at the Free University of Berlin. She has also taught at the New School for Social Research And The University of California, Santa Cruz.John Elyis a long-time commentator on social movements in Germany.