Attention Allocation and Fund Flows: Evidence from Institutional Investors
Release time：22 January 2026
Jan
26
|
Time & Date
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11:30 am
-
13:00 pm,
January
26,
2026
(Monday)
|
|
Venue
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Room D804, Teaching Complex D Building
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| TOPIC | Attention Allocation and Fund Flows: Evidence from Institutional Investors |
| TIME&DATE | 11:30 am - 13:00 pm, January 26, 2026 (Monday) |
| Venue | Room D804, Teaching Complex D Building |
| Speaker |
Zhi Da University of Notre Dame |
| Abstract | With more than $40 trillion dollars under management, institutional investors of funds play an important role in the financial market. Using novel data on fund viewership, we are the first to examine how these investors allocate attention to specific institutional funds. Exploiting quasi-random variation in screen display features on a prominent institutional asset management platform as instruments, we provide causal evidence that their direct attention drives flows to institutional funds and exerts positive price pressure on their underlying stocks. Overall, our evidence suggests that even sophisticated institutional fund investors suffer from attention constraints, which have important asset pricing implications. |
| Biography | Professor Zhi Da is the Howard J. and Geraldine F. Korth Professor of Finance at the University of Notre Dame. His research focuses on empirical asset pricing and investment. In recent papers, he studied the role of limited investor attention, the behavior of institutional investors, and cash flow risks of financial assets. His papers have been published in the Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics among others. He is currently serving as an associate editor at several journals including Journal of Finance, Management Science, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and Journal of Banking and Finance. Zhi has received the 2017 JFQA William F. Sharpe Award for Scholarship in Financial Research, among other research awards and grants. After gaining a BBA and an MSc from National University of Singapore, he worked at the interest rate and exotic derivative trading desk in DBS Bank. He subsequently earned a PhD in Finance from Northwestern University. |
