Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 21st Apr 2025, 08:48:49am CEST
Jinfei Sheng1, Zheng Sun1, Baozhong Yang2, Alan Zhang3
1UC Irvine; 2Georgia State U; 3Florida International U
Discussant: Ahmed Guecioueur (University of Washington)
This paper proposes a novel measure of investment companies’ reliance on generative AI, focusing on its implications for hedge funds. We document a sharp increase in generative AI usage by hedge funds after ChatGPT’s 2022 launch. A difference-in-differences test shows that hedge funds adopting generative AI earn 3-5% higher annualized abnormal returns than non-adopters. We further identify this effect by exploiting ChatGPT outages as exogenous shocks. The outperformance originates from funds’ AI talent and ChatGPT’s strength in analyzing firm-specific information. Non-hedge funds yield no significant returns from AI adoption, suggesting generative AI may widen existing disparities among investors.
Asset (and Data) Managers
PhD Student Marco Zanotti
Swiss Finance Institute; USI Lugano, Switzerland
Discussant: Anton Lines (Copenhagen Business School)
This paper shows that new technologies can help asset managers attract capital inflows. Exploiting information from their websites’ codes, I track when fund managers start collecting and analyzing customers’ data using tools like Google Analytics. Funds adopting such technologies attract 1.5% higher annual flows, with the effect being concentrated in retail share classes. Additionally, they expand product offerings and charge higher fees. The effects decrease with competition as more funds within the same category adopt similar technologies. Overall, these results highlight that technological innovation in asset management extends beyond portfolio allocation decisions to impact how funds attract and retain capital. This evidence underscores the economic importance of managers learning from customers’ data.
