David Booth: ‘Usually the Great Ideas Start Out as Small Ideas and Then You Build on Them’

Our guest on the podcast today is David Booth. He’s the Chairman of Dimensional Fund Advisors, a firm he founded in 1981. David led Dimensional as CEO and later Co-CEO until 2017, when he stepped back from the daily management of the firm. David helped create one of the world’s first index funds in the 1970s and launched the first passively managed small-company strategy in the early 1980s. He received a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1968 and a master’s degree in business in 1969 from the University of Kansas. In 1971, he received an MBA from the University of Chicago. Over the years, David has been a benefactor to both schools, and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business is named in David’s honor. David, welcome to The Long View.

Background

Bio

Tune Out the Noise

DFA US Small Cap

DFA US Micro Cap

Papers Mentioned

“Stocks, Bonds, Bills and Inflation: Year-by-Year Historical Returns (1926-1974),” by Roger Ibbotson and Rex Siquefield, The Journal of Business, January 1976.

“The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns,” by Eugene Fama and Kenneth French, jstor.org, June 1992.

“Why Investors Missed Out on 15% of Total Fund Returns,” by Jeffrey Ptak, Morningstar.com, Aug. 15, 2024.

Other

Errol Morris

Merton Miller

Eugene Fama

Mac McQuown

Rex Sinquefield

Robert Merton

Dan Wheeler

Daniel Kahneman

“Everything You Need to Know About ‘MADOFF: The Monster of Wall Street,’” by Ingrid Ostby, netflix.com, Jan. 4, 2023.

“DFA vs. Vanguard,” The Rational Reminder podcast, Episode 351, youtube.com.

“PHOTOS: A Look Inside the Booth Estate,” Austin American-Statesman, Feb. 13, 2020.

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