Wharton faculty on investment strategies, birth rates, and climate change

The July edition of the Wharton Schoolpodcast, "Ripple Effect," continues its "Meet the Author" series, highlighting recent books published by faculty experts. The recent episodes of the series examine investment strategies, declining birth rates, and the economics of climate change.

Wharton finance professor emeritus Jeremy Siegel's bestselling book, "Stocks for the Long Run," was first released in 1994 and is now in its sixth edition. In this "Meet the Author" installment of "The Ripple Effect" podcast, Siegel discusses what has changed in investment strategies, and what remains the same.

Siegel includes an analysis of the pandemic and other crises, known as "black swan" events. "The important thing is, these black swan events seem to have a very critical short-term effect. But what is quite amazing is they get washed out and have very little long-term effect," he says. "When I finished the sixth edition of the book a few years ago, I went back to my first edition. And I said, what was the long-term return on stocks after inflation annual return? This was more than 30 years ago. It was 6.7%. What was it in my sixth edition? 6.7%. So, think of everything that's happened in 30 years-the financial crisis, black swan. The pandemic, black swan, and all that. But the return on stocks has remained remarkably stable, steady."

In "Baby Bust," Stew Friedman, emeritus practice professor of management, reveals new insights on the declining birthrate a decade after the release of his groundbreaking book, "Baby Bust: New Choices for Men and Women in Work and Family."

"You can look at lots of other data to see that the fertility rate in the United States is declining further. Money is a big part of that. Economics is a big part of that. But support [is] what families need. And that has much to do with child care, education, investing more in education as a society. Which is something that we see in some of our partners in other parts of the world. That we're just not investing enough," Friedman says.

And in "Slow Burn," R. Jisung Park, assistant professor in the School of Social Policy & Practice,breaks down the surprising ways that global warming impacts health, transportation, education, and more in his book, "Slow Burn: The Hidden Costs of a Warming World."

"Mortality responses to extreme heat are among the biggest drivers of climate related health disruptions. But it's not just death, it's other dimensions of suffering. Hospitalizations go up when the temperature is hotter," Park says. "There are also ways in which the climate in which we live, whether it's temperature changes or air pollution from wildfire smoke, can affect your mood."

"Given the amount of emissions we emit on an average basis, we're setting in motion several trillions of dollars' worth of discounted future damages because of our emissions. That should give us at least some sense of how much we should, as a society, be willing to pay to cut those emissions, if you believe in benefit-cost analysis, which I do, as one input to decision making," Park says.

For a full list of podcast episodes, visit the "Ripple Effect" website.