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Should Benchmark Indices Have Alpha? Revisiting Performance

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  • Martijn Cremers
  • Antti Petajisto
  • Eric Zitzewitz

Abstract

Standard Fama-French and Carhart models produce economically and statistically significant nonzero alphas even for passive benchmark indices such as the S&P 500 and Russell 2000. We find that these alphas primarily arise from the disproportionate weight the Fama-French factors place on small value stocks which have performed well, and from the CRSP value-weighted market index which is historically a downward-biased benchmark for U.S. stocks. We explore alternative ways to construct these factors and propose alternative models constructed from common and easily tradable benchmark indices. The index-based models outperform the standard models in common applications such as performance evaluation of mutual fund managers.

Suggested Citation

  • Martijn Cremers & Antti Petajisto & Eric Zitzewitz, 2008. "Should Benchmark Indices Have Alpha? Revisiting Performance," Yale School of Management Working Papers amz2452, Yale School of Management, revised 26 Jan 2010.
    • Handle: RePEc:ysm:wpaper:amz2452
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    performance evaluation; benchmark index; factor model; Fama-French; Carhart;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors

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