Analysis of the retail investors' preferences for mutual fund product from a quantitative/empirical analysis of the fund flows in different markets

Abstract

In this paper, we analysed the effect of real economic variables in the mutual fund flows assuming that they are the first drivers for a change in the investor behaviour, we tried to replicate some regressions models from the literature and create a new customised ones to serve the purpose of the project thesis. In parallel, we know that mutual funds are grouped into different categories based on assets with different levels of risk perception (e.g. equity fund, fixed income fund, money market fund) so we tried to create separate models for each category in order to get a better all-around view of the problem. We made some conclusions regarding the retail investors’ behaviour towards mutual fund industry according to the thesis framework. Hoping that the implementation of the models will be of a great help to the company.