Skip to main content
Log in

Market crashes, speculation and learning in financial markets

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Economic Theory Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A natural conjecture is that if agents’ beliefs are almost correct then equilibrium prices should be close to rational expectations prices. Sandroni (J Econ Theory 82:1–18, 1998) gives a counterexample in an economy with sunspots and complete markets. We extend Sandroni’s result by showing that the conjecture is generically true for economies with complete markets. We consider a standard General Equilibrium model with large but finite horizon and complete markets. We show that, for almost every such economy, if conditional beliefs eventually become correct along a path of events then equilibrium prices of assets traded along this path converge to rational expectations equilibria in the sup-norm. Moreover, we establish that, generically, there exist along any such path local diffeomorphisms between individual beliefs and equilibrium prices.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Araujo A. and Sandroni A. (1999). On the convergence to homogeneous expectations when markets are complete. Econometrica 67: 663–672

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Balasko Y. (1988). Foundations of the Theory of General Equilibrium. Academic, Orlando

    Google Scholar 

  • Debreu G. (1970). Economies with a finite set of equilibria. Econometrica 38: 387–392

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Debreu G. (1974). Excess demand functions. J Math Econ 1: 15–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dieudonné J. (1960). Foundations of Modern Analysis. Academic, New-York

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris M. and Raviv A. (1993). Differences in opinion make a horse race. Rev Financ Stud 6: 473–506

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harrrison M. and Kreps D. (1978). Speculative investor behavior in a stock market with heterogenous expectations. Q J Econ 92: 323–336

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kandel E. and Pearson N. (1995). Differential interpretation of public signals and trade in speculative markets. J Politi Econ 103: 831–872

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kurz M. (1994). On the structure and diversity of rational beliefs. Econ Theory 4: 877–900

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kurz M. and Motolese M. (2001). Endogenous uncertainty and market volatility. Econ Theory 17: 497–544

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mas-Colell A., Whinston M. and Green J. (1995). Microeconomic Theory. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Sandroni A. (2000). Do markets favor agents able to make accurate predictions?. Econometrica 68: 1303–1341

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sandroni A. (1998). Learning, rare events and recurrent market crashes in frictionless economies without intrinsic uncertainty. J Econ Theory 82: 1–18

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sandroni A. (2003). Speculative trade, asset prices and investment levels. Econ Theory 21: 423–433

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wenzelburger J. (2002). Global convergence of adaptive learning in models of pure exchange. Econ Theory 19: 649–672

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Patrick L. Leoni.

Additional information

I would like to thank C. Ewerhart and A. Kirman for their comments, as well as the seminar participants at the University of Minho, the General Equilibrium Workshop 2005 in Zurich, and the 15th Asian General Equilibrium Conference 2007 in Singapore. An anonymous referee also provided very valuable comments.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Leoni, P.L. Market crashes, speculation and learning in financial markets. Econ Theory 39, 217–229 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00199-007-0310-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00199-007-0310-z

Keywords

JEL Classification

Navigation