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Do Alpha Males Deliver Alpha? Facial Width-to-Height Ratio and Hedge Funds
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2021
Abstract
An abundance of evidence relates facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR) to masculine behaviors in males. We show that hedge funds operated by high-fWHR managers underperform those operated by low-fWHR managers, bear greater downside risk, are more susceptible to fire sales, and fail more often. High-fWHR managers compensate for their underperformance by marketing their funds more aggressively, thereby garnering higher flows and fee revenues. By exploiting major personal events that shape testosterone, namely marriage and fatherhood, we trace the biological mechanism underlying the relation between fWHR and investment performance to circulating testosterone. Our findings are robust and extend to equity mutual funds.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis , Volume 57 , Issue 5 , August 2022 , pp. 1727 - 1770
- Creative Commons
- This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington
Footnotes
We thank Stephen Brown, Chris Clifford (AFA discussant), Lauren Cohen, Fangjian Fu, Aurobindo Ghosh, Jianfeng Hu, Juha Joenväärä (FMA discussant), Matti Keloharju, Andy Kim, Weikai Li, Roger Loh, Roni Michaely, Sugata Ray, Rik Sen, Andrei Shleifer, Jeremy Stein, Mandy Tham, Wing Wah Tham, Chishen Wei, and Yachang Zeng, as well as seminar and conference participants at Singapore Management University, University of Central Florida, University of New South Wales, the Financial Management Association Meeting in San Diego, and the American Finance Association Meeting in Atlanta for helpful conversations and commentary. Antonia Kirilova, Jinxing Li, and Aakash Patel provided excellent research assistance.
References
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