Optimal information production of mutual funds: Evidence from China

This study demonstrates that Chinese stock mutual funds exhibit persistent preference for growth stocks over value stocks. Despite the positive premium of value stocks over growth stocks, funds in aggregate manage to beat the market. Moreover, growth-oriented funds do not underperform their value-oriented peers. To solve these puzzles, we provide evidence for funds' superior skill in picking growth stocks over value stocks, and conclude that such skill helps explain their growth tilt. Furthermore, we show that mu-tual funds trade against the retail investors, more so in growth stocks than in value stocks. Coupled with our finding that retail investors make more mistakes trading growth stocks than trading value stocks, we conclude that mutual funds optimize their information production to focus more on growth stocks so as to maximize returns. (c) 2022 Elsevier B.V.