Decomposing Value Globally

Abstract

This paper utilizes an international context and revisits the findings which argue that the positive relation between book-to-market ratio and future equity returns is driven by historical changes in firm size in the US. After confirming these results in the US setting both in the original and a more recent sample period, we find that they do not hold in regions outside the US. In the international sample, book-to-market ratio has a significantly positive relation with future equity returns even after changes in firm size are controlled for in regression analyses. This positive relation is again visible when the orthogonal component of book-to-market ratio (which is independent from changes in firm size) is used as a sorting variable in portfolio analyses. Country-level analyses confirm the findings from regional analyses.

Keywords: value premium, decomposing value, size effect, cross-section of equity returns, international finance

JEL Classification: G11, G12, G15