The Investment Scientist

Let me first define the term “small cap value premium.” It’s an observation (and indeed historical fact up until about five years ago) that small cap value stocks outperform large cap growth stocks in a rather consistent manner. 

In academia, there are two theories attempting to explain it: 1) risk-based and 2) behavior-based.

The risk-based theory was pioneered by Nobel winner Eugene Fama, who argued that small cap value stocks are inherently riskier than large cap growth stocks, thus they deserve higher returns to compensate for higher risks.