The Global Rise of the Value-Weighted Portfolio

Abstract

We do three things in this paper. We first develop a metric to measure the popularity of the value-weighted portfolio in a stock market. We use our metric to document that, though the value-weighted portfolio is less popular in emerging markets than in developed markets, its popularity is increasing everywhere. In the United States, for example, trading in the value-weighted portfolio could only explain 32% of trading volume in the 1920s, but can explain 68% in the 2000s. Finally, as we have better data for the United States, we explore why the value-weighted portfolio is becoming more popular.

Keywords: portfolio theory, value-weighted portfolio, diversification, indexing, stock picking

JEL Classification: G11, G14, G15