The Economics of the Asset Management Industry

This book aims at providing a broad overview of topics relating to the Asset Management Industry. Even though, there exist many books about Asset Management, most of them analyse potential trading strategies, but there is not much focus on the Industrial Organization of the Asset Management Industry. This Industrial Organization and the focus on Funds as legal vehicles leads to interesting governance issues that might be more important than the risks implied by a given investment strategy. The book consists of 5 Parts: Asset Management: Theoretical Foundations, Risk Management for Funds, Structured Finance and Valuation of Financial Products, The Economics of the Mutual Fund Industry and Specific Topics relating to Alternative Investment Funds. From an academic viewpoint, the text tries to rationalize the existence of the existing business models through behavioural aspects. From a more professional viewpoint, the conclusion is that investors should put more emphasis on the analysis of incentives implicit in the different business models, rather than a focus on fashionable trading strategies. In that sense, the book can be used as a guide to develop Due Diligence approaches.