MSCI EAFE countries. Financial economists — Walkshäusl and Lobe — investigate the performance of global and 50 country-specific (28 developed and 22 emerging) fundamentally weighted indices compared to capitalization-weighted indices between 1982 and 2008. First, they establish that superior performance of domestic indices diminishes considerably when applying a bootstrap procedure for robust performance testing. Second, even after controlling for data snooping biases and the value premium, they find evidence that fundamental indexing produces economically and statistically significant positive alphas. This holds for global and country-specific versions which are heavily weighted in the world portfolio. Criticisms and responses Since the first research was disseminated, fundamentally based indices have been criticized by proponents of capitalization weighting including John Bogle, Burton Malkiel, and William Sharpe. The opposing opinions rely heavily on opposing assumptions. Proponents claiming a new revolutionary paradigm in index fund investing such as for example Robert D. Arnott, Jeremy Siegel and Jack Treynor — all affiliated with fundamental index funds — assume somewhat irrational markets whereas the opponents mentioned — some affiliated with conventional index funds — assume more rational and efficient markets. Responses to criticisms have come primarily from the publications of one of the founders of fundamentally based indices, Robert Arnott. Fundamentally based indexes are really being actively managed. By avoiding capitalization weighting, they are making bets that certain stocks will outperform the market. Response: Although not necessarily generalizable, referring to his own company’s fundamentally based indices, Robert Arnott said, “Our fundamental index is formulaic, transparent, and is objectively and rigorously constructed.... The [free-float capitalization weighted] S&P 500 is not objective. It is not formulaic. It is not transparent. And it is not replicable.” Fundamentally based indices are exposed to the Fama–French risk factors — that is they are value-biased and small cap-biased. These factors have historically led to outperformance. The current returns of fundamentally based indices are exaggerated because of the recent strong performance of value stocks during the last 30 years and the outperformance of small cap stocks. Response: It is true that the Fama–French factors explain much of the returns of fundamentally based indices as they do for most passive portfolios. If they did not, it would demonstrate a flaw in the Fama–French model. After controlling for Fama–French risk factors, fundamentally based indices exhibit a small positive alpha — albeit a statistically insignificant one. Fundamentally based indices have higher turnover and therefore higher costs than capitalization