Inefficient Markets: An Introduction to Behavioral Finance (Clarendon Lectures in Economics) - Hardcover

Shleifer, Andrei

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198292287 ISBN 13: 9780198292289

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2000

Synopsis

The efficient markets hypothesis has been the central proposition in finance for nearly thirty years. It states that securities prices in financial markets must equal fundamental values, either because all investors are rational or because arbitrage eliminates pricing anomalies. This book describes an alternative approach to the study of financial markets: behavioral finance. This approach starts with an observation that the assumptions of investor rationality and perfect arbitrage are overwhelmingly contradicted by both psychological and institutional evidence. In actual financial markets, less than fully rational investors trade against arbitrageurs whose resources are limited by risk aversion, short horizons, and agency problems. The book presents models of such markets. These models explain the available financial data more accurately than the efficient markets hypothesis, and generate new predictions about security prices. By summarizing and expanding the research in behavioral finance, the book builds a new theoretical and empirical foundation for the economic analysis of real-world markets.

About this title

About the Author

Andrei Shleifer is professor of Economics at Harvard University.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0198292287
• ISBN 13: 9780198292289
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224