Can Noise Create Size and Value Effects?
32 Pages Posted: 10 Oct 2006 Last revised: 26 Oct 2011
Date Written: October 24, 2011
Abstract
The price of a stock may differ from its fundamental value by a random noise. In this case, small-capitalization and value stocks are more likely to have negative noise, while large-capitalization and growth stocks are likely to have positive noise. Negative price noise implies that small-capitalization and value stocks are more likely undervalued and thus have higher expected return than justified by risk, while the large-capitalization and growth stocks are more likely overvalued. We formally verify and explore this intuition by using a standard noise-in-price model.
We compute in closed form the cross-sectional variations of the expected stock return. Our model is parsimonious with essentially only one adjustable parameter the volatility of the price noise.
With a moderate volatility of price noise, the cross-section of the expected stock return matches quantitatively the empirical counterpart in Fama and French (1992). Our study suggests that a modest amount of noise in prices can create size and value effects.
Keywords: noise, size effect, value effect
JEL Classification: G12, G14
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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