We show that mutual fund investors rely on simple signals and likely do not engage in sophisticated learning about managers' alpha as widely believed. Simplistic performance chasing best explains aggregate flows to the mutual fund space and flows across funds. These results hold for both actively managed and passive index funds. Empirical patterns commonly interpreted as reflecting learning about managerial skill also appear in falsification tests and are mechanical. Our results are consistent with the view that, on average, households are homo sapiens with limited financial sophistication rather than hyperrational alpha-maximizing agents, as often assumed in the literature.

中文翻译：

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共同基金投资者真正关心的是什么？

我们表明，共同基金投资者依赖于简单的信号，并且可能不会像人们普遍认为的那样对经理人的阿尔法进行复杂的学习。简单的业绩追逐最好地解释了共同基金空间的总流量和跨基金的流量。这些结果适用于主动管理和被动指数基金。通常被解释为反映管理技能学习的经验模式也出现在证伪测试中并且是机械的。我们的结果与这样一种观点是一致的，即平均而言，家庭是具有有限财务复杂度的智人，而不是文献中经常假设的过度理性的 alpha 最大化代理。