We study the influence of investor attention on mutual fund investors' fund selection and fund managers' portfolio choice. Using the Google Search Volume Index to measure investor attention on individual stocks, we find fund investors tend to direct more capital to mutual funds holding more high-attention stocks; fund managers tend to perform window-dressing trading to increase the portfolio holdings of high-attention stocks displayed to investors. Our results suggest that funds, particularly those with strong incentives, strategically trade on stock attention to attract investor flows. This strategic trading behaviour is also associated with fund underperformance and leads to larger non-fundamental volatility of holding stocks.

We examine global integration in the market for asset management, as indicated by the correlation of mutual fund flows across domiciles. We observe no leading role for the US relative to flows in other domiciles. We do observe a strong global factor in MF flows, and global integration is linked to a market’s business environment, safety from conflict, and political stability. In regional analysis, Europe represents an integrated market for asset management, led by Luxembourg, where asset managers face common flow risks across domiciles. The Asia-Pacific region displays no coherent patterns of correlations across domiciles.