Jeremy Siegel.
by Jeremy Siegel — Stocks for the Long Run · long-horizon equity return research
Professor of Finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and author of Stocks for the Long Run. Siegel's research on equity returns over two centuries is the empirical backbone of the long-horizon case for stock investing.
About Jeremy Siegel
Jeremy Siegel is the Russell E. Palmer Professor of Finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he has taught since 1976. He is best known for Stocks for the Long Run, first published in 1994 and now in its sixth edition (2023), which provides a comprehensive historical analysis of asset class returns across more than 200 years of market data.
Siegel's central finding — that equities have delivered a remarkably consistent real return of approximately 6.5–7% annually over long periods, outperforming bonds, gold, and cash by a wide margin — has become one of the foundational empirical arguments for equity-heavy long-term investing. The book's historical sweep, tracing returns through depressions, wars, and monetary regimes, gives it a rigor that distinguishes it from more qualitative personal finance literature.
Beyond Stocks for the Long Run, Siegel co-founded WisdomTree Investments and has served as a senior investment strategy advisor to the firm, helping develop its family of fundamentally weighted index ETFs. He has been a regular contributor to financial media for decades.
Siegel's work has been both celebrated and critiqued: supporters cite its historical grounding; critics note that past equity returns may not be replicated in a world of lower structural growth and higher starting valuations. His ongoing public engagement with these debates — including his response to Robert Shiller's cyclically adjusted valuation warnings — makes him one of the most substantive voices in long-run equity research.