Size Matters, If You Control Your Junk

62 Pages Posted: 14 Feb 2018

See all articles by Clifford S. Asness

Clifford S. Asness

AQR Capital Management, LLC

Andrea Frazzini

AQR Capital Management, LLC

Ronen Israel

Yale School of Management; AQR Capital Management, LLC

Lasse Heje Pedersen

AQR Capital Management, LLC; Copenhagen Business School - Department of Finance; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: February 2018

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 in the early 1980s, is concentrated among microcap stocks, predominantly resides in January, is not present for measures of size that do not rely on market prices, is weak internationally, and is subsumed by proxies for illiquidity. We find, however, that these challenges are dismantled when controlling for the quality, or the inverse "junk", of a firm. A significant size premium emerges, which is stable through time, robust to the 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. Controlling for quality/junk also explains interactions between size and other return characteristics such as value and momentum.

Keywords: Junk, Microcap, Quality, Size, Size Anomaly, Size effect, Small Cap

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JEL Classification: G11, G12

Suggested Citation

Asness, Cliff S. and Frazzini, Andrea and Israel, Ronen and Pedersen, Lasse Heje, Size Matters, If You Control Your Junk (February 2018). CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP12684, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3122326

Cliff S. Asness (Contact Author)

AQR Capital Management, LLC ( email )

Two Greenwich Plaza, 3rd Floor
Greenwich, CT 06830
United States
203-742-3601 (Phone)
203-742-3101 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.aqrcapital.com

Andrea Frazzini

AQR Capital Management, LLC ( email )

Two Greenwich Plaza, 3rd Floor
Greenwich, CT 06830
United States
203-742-3894 (Phone)
203-742-3394 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.econ.yale.edu/~af227/

Ronen Israel

Yale School of Management ( email )

165 Whitney Ave
New Haven, CT 06511

AQR Capital Management, LLC ( email )

Greenwich, CT
United States

Lasse Heje Pedersen

AQR Capital Management, LLC ( email )

Greenwich, CT
United States

Copenhagen Business School - Department of Finance ( email )

Solbjerg Plads 3
Frederiksberg, DK-2000
Denmark

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) ( email )

London
United Kingdom

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