Gender differences in mutual funds' perfomance - Empirical research of Finnish mutual fund managers

Abstract

This study investigates the differences between genders in professional portfolio management. The aim is to find out if there are differences between male and female fund managers in risk taking and gaining profits in Finnish equity fund markets.

The subject is first approached by introducing the efficient market theory and its contradiction with behavioral finance. When men and women are compared, overconfidence is more common among men than women and consequently it has a major impact on gender differences in risk taking and investing. After that, the discussion moves forward to examine more closely the gender differences in professional portfolio management.

According to the results from Jensen’s alpha, there is no statistically significant difference, when using t-test and Mann-Whitney U-test, between male and female portfolio managers. When the results were measured by Sharpe ratio according to Mann-Whitney U-test in 2011 the distributions of male and female managers were not the same. According to the results from Treynor ratio, there is no statistically significant difference, when using t-test and Mann-Whitney U-test, between male and female portfolio managers. Also when relative returns of the funds were compared, either t-test or U-test found no difference. The results are clearly unambiguous. There are no differences in funds’ performance between male and female portfolio managers.