Abstract
The size premium has been challenged along many fronts: it has a weak historical record, varies significantly over time, in particular weakening after its discovery, is concentrated among microcap stocks, resides predominantly in January, is not present for non-price based measures of size, is weak internationally, and is argued to be subsumed by proxies for illiquidity. We find, however, that these challenges are systematically dismantled when controlling for the quality, or its inverse “junk”, of a firm. Across a wide variety of quality measures proposed in the literature a significant size premium emerges, which is: stable through time, robust to specification, more consistent across seasons and markets, not concentrated in microcaps, robust to non-price based measures of size, and not captured by an illiquidity premium. These results are replicated in 30 different industries and in 24 different equity markets. The resurrected size effect that controls for quality puts it on par with other anomalies such as value and momentum in terms of its economic significance.
Original language | English |
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Publication date | 2017 |
Number of pages | 65 |
Publication status | Published - 2017 |
Event | The 77th Annual Meeting of American Finance Association. AFA 2017 - Sheraton Grand Chicago, Chicago, United States Duration: 6 Jan 2017 → 8 Jan 2017 Conference number: 77 http://www.afajof.org/details/page/8672741/Paper-Submission-2017.html |
Conference
Conference | The 77th Annual Meeting of American Finance Association. AFA 2017 |
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Number | 77 |
Location | Sheraton Grand Chicago |
Country/Territory | United States |
City | Chicago |
Period | 06/01/2017 → 08/01/2017 |
Internet address |