After a rough year and a half, emerging-market stocks have come back down to reasonable levels. But investors who want exposure to the faster-growing economies of the developing world should think twice about standard emerging-market mutual funds. Funds that focus on smaller stocks in the developing world offer a much purer play.

Stock markets in emerging economies such as Brazil, China and India have been on a roller-coaster ride for nearly a decade. For the five years ended Oct. 31, 2007, the MSCI Emerging Markets index, which tracks the stock markets of 21 developing countries, rose 372%