Burton Malkiel

Burton Malkiel earned his PhD in economics from Princeton University and spent most of his career there as a professor of economics. He served as a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers and as a member of the Vanguard Group's board of directors. His book "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" — first published in 1973 and now in its 13th edition — is one of the most widely read and influential investment books ever written. The book's central argument is that stock prices follow a random walk — that future price movements cannot be reliably predicted from past prices, and that security analysis and active management cannot consistently outperform the market after costs. This argument, grounded in efficient markets theory and empirical evidence, led directly to Malkiel's advocacy for passive index investing as the optimal strategy for most investors. The book predates Vanguard's first index fund by three years but was directly influential in the thinking that led to its creation. Through successive editions spanning five decades, Malkiel has updated his analysis to address new developments — the rise of ETFs, the persistence of factor anomalies, and behavioural finance — while consistently maintaining his core argument for low-cost diversified passive investing. He has also written about behavioural finance, the efficient markets debate, and global investing. Malkiel served as a director of Vanguard for 28 years and was instrumental in the development and advocacy of low-cost index funds.