How Smart Beta Strategies Work In EM

Smart beta or dumb beta? While the debate has been fierce for the US equity market, we investigate the efficacy of smart beta strategies in the overall EM equity universe and 11 individual EM Markets using both bottom-up and top-down approaches. The outperformance of multi-factor strategies in EM is largely driven by their stronger relative EPS. Investors can use multi-factor smart beta strategies to gain EM equity exposures more efficiently.