Online attention and mutual fund performance: Evidence from Norway

Abstract

This paper studies whether flows of funds into and out of equity mutual funds depend on investor attention measured as Google searches for company names and on fund’s performance. We find that mutual funds which performed well in the past receive more attention and more inflows. These results hold no matter which measure of past performance is considered. Interestingly, funds which performed well in previous twelve months are also subject to increased outflows, but this relationship is less robust than relationship for inflows. Lastly, longer-term (one year) performance matters more than shorter-term (one month and six months) performance.