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Edward Tower

Professor Emeritus of Economics
Economics
Box 90097, Durham, NC 27708-0097
228C Social Sciences Bldg, Box 90097, Durham, NC 27708

Overview


Professor Tower specializes in finance, computable general equilibrium modeling, macroeconomics, development economics, microeconomics, and managerial economics. He conducts a majority of his research within the study of trade and development, exploring a variety of variables from tariffs, quotas, and time zone arbitrage, to equities, mutual funds, and index mutual funds. Since he began publishing his work in 1965, he has contributed over 130 articles to leading academic journals and has had several books, chapters, and papers appear in print. Some of his more recent writings include, “School Choice: Money, Race, and Congressional Voting on Vouchers,” completed in collaboration with O. Gokcekus and J. Phillips; “Rational Pessimism: Predicting Equity Returns by Tobin’s q and Price/Earnings Ratio” with M. Harney; and “Predicting Equity Returns for 37 Countries: Tweaking the Gordon Formula” with K. Reinker. Much of his work pertaining to U.S. trade policy has been used to determine congressional voting on protectionist issues based on campaign contributions. His work on financial issues has also played an important role in determining the value of the U.S. stock market. His latest studies involved an investigation of congressional voting on importation of ethical drugs and predicting returns on both foreign and U.S. equity.

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Professor Emeritus of Economics · 2021 - Present Economics, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

In the News


Published June 9, 2014
A stock market forecast with a 14-year winning streak

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Recent Publications


Vanguard and Fidelity active stock funds: both generally beat their same-style Vanguard index funds

Journal Article Annals of Operations Research · January 1, 2024 This chapter contrasts the return of Vanguard and Fidelity active stock mutual funds with the same-style portfolio of Vanguard’s index funds over the ten years through 2022. Vanguard’s equally weighted portfolio of domestic active funds generally excess-re ... Full text Cite

Static Indexing Beats Tactical Asset Allocation

Journal Article Journal of Index Investing · March 1, 2021 How do tactical asset allocation funds compare with a portfolio of index ETFs having the same investment style and bond-A nd foreign-market-augmented same-style Fama-French benchmarks? The authors find that portfolios of equally weighted TAA funds under-re ... Full text Cite

Judging economic policy: Selected writings of Gottfried Haberler

Book · January 1, 2021 In this engaging volume, the editors present the influential work of economist Gottfried Haberler, whom Paul Samuelson judges qualified for about two-and-a-half Nobel prizes in economics. Throughout the book, Haberlers essays reveal the clarity of his anal ... Full text Cite
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Education, Training & Certifications


Harvard University · 1971 Ph.D.
Harvard University · 1967 M.A.
Harvard University · 1964 B.A.