Conditional Market Exposures of the Value Premium

Value strategies exhibit a large positive beta if contemporaneous market excess returns are positive, and a small beta if contemporaneous market excess returns are negative. Value also has a large positive beta after bear markets, but a small beta after bull markets. These facts hold for equity-value strategies in 21 countries, and to a lesser extent for three non-equity-value strategies. Betas conditional on contemporaneous market returns capture expected-return variation associated with the book-to-market ratio. These betas also partially capture the value premium, and are related to larger cash-flow risks of value strategies.