Think value is overrated? Think again.

In a recently released Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper, Nilufer Caliskan and Thorsten Hens of the University of Zurich looked at value and growth stock returns across 41 different countries, and found that in every one, value outperformed over the long term.

“In this study, we provide strong empirical evidence that the value premium exists world wide and differences across countries can be explained by differences in risk aversion and patience values,” they write in the paper. (Thanks to Abnormal Returns and Turnkey Analyst for highlighting the study.)

The study “provides further empirical evidence that cultural differences might matter more than generally presumed in the finance literature,” Caliskan and Hens add. To examine cultural differences, they looked at how investors from different countries compared in terms of patience and risk-aversion. They found that the value premium increased with risk aversion and decreased with patience. In other words, the value premium is higher in markets where investors are less patient, and require more reward for taking on risk.

You can find the full study here.