Absent mandatory reporting, and although many companies report their carbon emissions, much of the emissions data are estimated by data providers. As we evaluate the forward-looking carbon scores from several popular data providers, we find no evidence that these scores predict future changes in...

Traditional capitalization-weighted indices generally add stocks with high valuation multiples after persistent outperformance and sell stocks at low valuation multiples after persistent underperformance. For the S&P 500 Index, in the year after a change in the index, additions lose relative to...

We use a holdings-based attribution model to disaggregate the benchmark-adjusted returns to U.S. equity mutual funds into components that reflect persistent segment tilts, the timing of segment returns, and stock selection relative to their benchmarks. We find that large-cap funds add value by...

Option prices predict the cross section of equity returns. We show that, unconditionally, the prices of long-dated options contain all the information relevant for predicting returns. Information, however, shifts towards short-dated options when an earnings announcement is imminent and when...

Factor returns, net of changes in valuation levels, are much lower than recent performance suggests. Value-add can be structural, and thus reliably repeatable, or situational—a product of rising valuations—likely neither sustainable nor repeatable. Many investors are performance chasers who...

We challenge the common view that smart beta strategies and factor tilts are equivalent. Initially, the term “smart beta” referred to strategies that broke the link between the price of a stock and its weight in the portfolio or index. Capitalization weighting does not do that — neither...