| dc.description.abstract | This master thesis examines the performance of active mutual funds in Norway and explores whether actively managed funds consistently outperform passive index funds net of fees. By analyzing a survivorship bias free dataset of 109 active funds spanning the period 1993-2023, we adopt a comprehensive approach to assess the aggregate and individual performance of these funds,
while also distinguishing between luck and skill. Our findings reveal that, on aggregate, active fund managers produce a monthly alpha of 30 bps, although being statistically insignificant when employing the Fama-French model. Further, upon examining each individual fund, our findings indicate that a mere 11% of the active funds exhibit outperformance. Our bootstrap analysis provides compelling evidence attributing the observed outperformance to chance rather than skill. Furthermore, our examination
of the cross-sectional distribution of alphas reveals the presence of ten fund products exhibiting underperformance in the left tail contributory to skill. | en_US |
