Survivorship Bias in Performance Studies

Abstract

Survivorship bias distorts results of virtually all current performance studies based on time series. Thus, researchers need to recognize and adjust for the presence of this bias. Not only does the bias affect the absolute performance measures; it also affects the relative rankings of managers over time.This presentation comes from the Blending Quantitative and Traditional Equity Analysis conference held in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 30-31, 1994.