Page 25 - ARUBA TODAY

BUSINESS Monday 19 March 2018
A25

Why so few female fund managers? It's not their performance

By STAN CHOE those run by men during A: When we were looking
AP Business Writer the financial crisis, from at the overview of the fund
NEW YORK (AP) — Why is 2007 to 2009, when risky in- industry, going back to the
just one of every 10 man- vestments were the hard- 90s, women have entered
agers at the helm of U.S. est-hit. Was the same true and exited in approximate-
mutual funds a woman? for other types of funds? ly equal numbers. But you
Many reasons may be be- A: It was also in stocks, but can see huge growth in
hind the disparity, but re- more muted. the number of men in the
searchers at Morningstar industry. That’s something
say they have disqualified Q: So, do you think the ste- I hadn’t seen in the data
one as a possibility: per- reotype that female inves- before.
formance. After measur- tors tend to take less risk
ing how 11,272 funds have than their male counter- Q: So, what do you think is
fared since 2003, the re- parts holds water? the reason for why so many
searchers found no big, A: That argument, we see, more fund managers are
statistically significant dif- correlates to some of our men than women?
ference in performance data in the performance A: The next hypothesis we
between those led by men, study. would tackle is looking at
women or teams of mixed education, to see if that
genders. This undated photo provided by Morningstar shows Madison Q: There were also other would be an appropriate
Madison Sargis, senior Sargis. After measuring how U.S. mutual funds have fared since periods where male man- reason for the disparity.
quantitative analyst at 2003, the researchers at Morningstar found no big, statistically agers were the better per- There has been some previ-
Morningstar and the lead significant difference in performance between those led by formers, but the overall ous research talking about
author of the report, re- men, women or teams of mixed genders. Sargis, senior quanti- gap doesn’t seem to be the pipeline (of female
tative analyst at Morningstar and the lead author of the report,
cently talked about the recently talked with the Associated Press about the numbers. that significant between analysts): If we can look at
numbers. Answers have (Morningstar via AP) the two genders. their education history and
been edited for length and A: When you look at aver- their credentials, we can
clarity. that we wouldn't see too Some of the findings do age results, the difference see how that all correlates
many differences, on a align with that prior re- isn’t big. Depending on to getting a role as a port-
Q: Before you began this pure peer-relative perfor- search. If you look at the the portfolio, it can be one folio manager.
study, did you have any mance. financial crisis, that's really or two basis points (equal For us, we just hadn’t dug
guesses on what the data I had read similar research, where we see the mixed- to one- or two-hundredths deep into it. Morningstar
would show? I had heard as to women producing gender and women teams of a percentage point), had never done a perfor-
that women are often bet- better risk-adjusted out- outperforming. That lends which isn’t all that different mance study of this nature
ter investors because they comes and having lower itself to that other research. from zero. before. We had done it by
tend to take less risk than portfolio turnover. I had rating but not by gender.
men and hold onto their in- also read some research Q: Your paper highlights Q: Did anything surprise We wanted to see if it does
vestments for the long term. that said men suffer from how bond funds run by you as you went through matter and if there were
A: My initial hypothesis was an over-confidence bias. women did better than the data? differences.q

US February housing starts fell 7 pct after January surge

By JOSH BOAK for sale. The solid job mar- two years. But the number The U.S. housing market ap- ployment and faster wage
AP Economics Writer ket and a growing millen- of homes listed for sale has pears to be stable because growth should support the
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. nial population looking to fallen during that time. In- of the relative health of the housing market, but ac-
homebuilders broke ground purchase a home have lift- creased construction has overall economy. That may tivity is going to be con-
on fewer apartment com- ed demand over the past not fully offset the shortage. be tested by rising mort- strained by higher rates,"
plexes in February, causing gage rates that could put said Ian Shepherdson, chief
overall housing starts to fall a new home out of reach economist at Pantheon
7 percent. for many. "Soaring em- Macroeconomics.q
The Commerce Depart-
ment said this weekend
that housing starts last
month were at a seasonal-
ly adjusted annual pace of
1.24 million, a decline that
was anticipated after con-
struction surged in January
to 1.33 million.
February's slowdown in
construction came from a
28 percent plunge in starts
for multi-family buildings.
Groundbreakings for single-
family houses actually rose
2.9 percent.
Builders' efforts have shift-
ed to single-family houses
as the economy has im-
proved and as fewer exist-
ing homes are being listed