Burton Malkiel

Burton Gordon Malkiel (born August 28, 1932) is an American economist and writer, most famous for his classic finance book "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" (now in its 9th edition, 2007). He is a leading proponent of the efficient market hypothesis, which contends that prices of publicly traded assets reflect all publicly available information, although he has also pointed out that some markets are evidently inefficient, exhibiting signs of non-random walk. [Burton Malkiel. [http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=uVcV0H4qtgw Investment Opportunities in China] . July 16, 2007. (34:15 mark)]

He is a professor of economics at Princeton University, and is a two-time chairman of the economics department there. He served as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers (1975-1977), president of the American Finance Association (1978), and dean of the Yale School of Management (1981-1988).

He has also written influential articles, including "The Valuation of Closed-End Investment Company Shares," "Journal of Finance" (1977). This article discussed the puzzle of why closed-end fund companies typically trade at market valuations lower than the net value of their assets. If net asset value and market capitalization are only two ways of measuring the same thing, then why is there a consistent difference between them?

Malkiel discussed, and discarded, the hypothesis that the discount is due to the management fees. The argument of the paper is that since management fees are generally constant, this view wouldn't explain changes in the size of the discount during the life-cycle of a fund. Furthermore, if the discount resulted from management fees, it should be related (Malkiel contended) to interest rates, yet the data doesn't support any such tie.

Malkiel is closely affiliated with The Vanguard Group due to Vanguard's similar investment philosophies. In "A Random Walk Down Wall Street," he frequently references Vanguard.

Malkiel received his bachelor's degree (1953) and his MBA (1955) from Harvard University, and his doctorate (1964) from Princeton University. He married his first wife, Judith Atherton Malkiel, in 1954; they had one son, Jonathan. After Judith Malkiel's death in 1987, Burton Malkiel married his second wife, Nancy Weiss in 1988. He served as a first lieutenant in the United States Army from 1955 to 1958. He also serves on the advisory panel of Robert D. Arnott's investment management firm, Research Affiliates

Partial bibliography

*cite book | first=Burton Gordon | last=Malkiel | coauthors=Patricia A. Taylor | title=From Wall Street to the Great Wall: How Investors Can Profit from China's Booming Economy | publisher=W.W. Norton | location=New York | year=2008 | id=ISBN 0-393-06478-0
*cite book | first=Burton Gordon | last=Malkiel | coauthors=Patricia A. Taylor | title=Von der Wall Street zur Chinesischen Mauer | publisher=FinanzBuch Verlag | location=Munich, Germany | year=2008 | id=ISBN 978-3-89879-359-9
*cite book | first=Burton Gordon | last=Malkiel | title=The Random Walk Guide to Investing: Ten Rules for Financial Success | publisher=W.W. Norton | location=New York | year=2003 | id=ISBN 0-393-05854-9
*cite book | first=Burton Gordon | last=Malkiel | title=The Efficient Market Hypothesis and Its Critics | publisher=Center for Economic Policy Studies, Princeton University | location=Princeton, NJ | year=2003
*cite book | first=Richard E. | last=Evans | coauthors=Burton Gordon Malkiel | title=Earn More (Sleep Better): The Index Fund Solution | publisher=Simon & Schuster | location=New York | year=1999 | id=ISBN 0-684-85250-0
*cite book | first=Burton Gordon | last=Malkiel | coauthors=J.P. Mei | title=Global Bargain Hunting: The Investor's Guide to Profits in Emgerging Markets | publisher=Simon & Schuster | location=New York | year=1998 | id=ISBN 0-684-83518-5
*cite book | first=J.G. | last=Cragg | coauthors=Burton Gordon Malkiel | title=Expectations and the structure of share prices | publisher=University of Chicago Press | location=Chicago | year=1982 | id=ISBN 0-226-11668-9
*cite book | first=Burton Gordon | last=Malkiel | title=Winning Investment Strategies | publisher=W.W. Norton | location=New York | year=1982 | id=ISBN 0-393-30031-5
*cite book | first=Burton Gordon | last=Malkiel | title=The Inflation Beater's Investment Guide: Winning Strategies for the 1980s | publisher=W.W. Norton | location=New York | year=1980 | id=ISBN 0-393-01355-3
*cite book | first=Burton Gordon | last=Malkiel | coauthors=Paul B. Firstenberg | title=Managing Risk in an Uncertain Era: An Analysis for Endowed Institutions | publisher=Princeton University | location=Princeton, NJ | year=1976
*cite book | first=Burton Gordon | last=Malkiel | title=A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-tested Strategy for Successful Investing | publisher=W.W. Norton | location=New York | year=1973 | id=ISBN 0-393-05500-0
*cite book | first=Burton Gordon | last=Malkiel | coauthors=Richard E. Quandt | title=Strategies and Rational Decisions in the Securities Options Market | publisher=MIT Press | location=Cambridge | year=1969 | id=ISBN 0-262-13056-4
*cite book | first=Burton Gordon | last=Malkiel | title=The Term Structure of Interest Rates: Expectations and Behavior Patterns | publisher=Princeton University Press | location=Princeton, NJ | year=1966

ee also

* Brownian motion
* Random walk
* Stochastic process
* The Vanguard Group

External links

* [http://www.princeton.edu/~bmalkiel/ Malkiel's personal webpage]

References

* "Malkiel, Burton Gordon". "Who's Who in America". New Providence, NJ : Marquis, Who's Who, 2003.