Accountability and Pecuniary Sanctions Influence Fiduciary Money Management

Sandro Casal, Matteo Ploner and I investigated the conflict of interests between investors and fund managers which often arises in asset management. A main goal of financial regulators is to identify and mitigate this conflict.  We therefore focused on measures that may foster protection of investors’ interests. In an experiment capturing the essential elements of asset management, we find that managers’ accountability does not prevent their opportunistic behavior if not backed by a threat of  punishment. Further, investors inefficiently sanction managers if not completely aware of managers’ choices. We concluded that, in order to effectively protecting investors in financial intermediations, financial regulators should ensure both managers’ accountability and a credible sanctioning system.

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