%0 Journal Article %A Robert D. Arnott %A Andrew L. Berkin %A Jia Ye %T How Well Have Taxable Investors Been Served in the 1980s and 1990s? %D 2000 %R 10.3905/jpm.2000.319766 %J The Journal of Portfolio Management %P 84-93 %V 26 %N 4 %X This article examines the performance of large equity mutual funds over the past ten, fifteen, and twenty years. On both a before– and after–tax basis, the authors find that the average mutual fund underperformed the Vanguard Index 500 fund. Although part of this under–performance is attributed to a small–size bias inherent in active management, an analysis of the pure tax effects also shows that funds have not been managed in a tax–efficient manner. The authors suggest a few simple ways to improve after–tax performance. %U https://jpm.pm-research.com/content/iijpormgmt/26/4/84.full.pdf