Motivated by the ongoing debate on the interaction between fund size and fund performance, we investigate the effect of asset growth on fund performance. We explicitly measure the economic gain (loss) of being a small (large) fund by comparing the average performance of a large fund vis à vis its average performance when it was small. Our results reveal that for the U.S. actively managed equity funds, the risk-adjusted return differential amounts to 7.08% per year in favor of small funds. Moreover, we fail to identify any performance loss for a fund relative to its history unless it belongs in the top 70% of fund size. However, the documented implicit performance handicap of U.S. large equity funds is not met in funds investing outside the U.S. Our findings carry important implications for the mutual fund industry and for the fund selection process.

受关于基金规模和基金业绩之间相互作用的持续辩论的推动，我们调查了资产增长对基金业绩的影响。我们通过比较大型基金的平均业绩与小型基金的平均业绩来明确衡量小型（大型）基金的经济收益（损失）。我们的结果显示，对于美国积极管理的股票基金，风险调整后的回报差异为每年 7.08%，有利于小型基金。此外，我们无法确定基金相对于其历史的任何业绩损失，除非它属于基金规模的前 70%。然而，美国大型股票基金记录的隐性业绩障碍在美国境外投资的基金中并未得到满足