Size matters, if you control your junk

Clifford Asness, Andrea Frazzini, Ronen Israel, Tobias J. Moskowitz and Lasse Pedersen

Journal of Financial Economics, 2018, vol. 129, issue 3, 479-509

Abstract: The size premium has been accused of having a weak historical record, being meager relative to other factors, varying significantly over time, weakening after its discovery, being concentrated among microcap stocks, residing predominantly in January, relying on price-based measures, and being weak internationally. We find, however, that these challenges disappear when controlling for the quality, or its inverse, junk, of a firm. A significant size premium emerges, which is stable through time, robust to specification, not concentrated in microcaps, more consistent across seasons, and evident for non-price-based measures of size, and these results hold in 30 different industries and 24 international equity markets. The resurrected size effect is on par with anomalies such as value and momentum in terms of economic significance and gives rise to new tests of, and challenges for, existing asset pricing theories.

Keywords: Size premium; Factor models; Quality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G11 G12 G14 G15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (37)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jfinec:v:129:y:2018:i:3:p:479-509

DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2018.05.006

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