Stock Market Bubbles

Revision with unchanged content. Speculative bubbles have accounted for some of the most interesting periods in financial market history. The phenomenon of speculative bubbles attracted attention of many researchers. Bubbels are widely seen as the cumulation of political, sociological and psychological factors. Indeed a study of the determinants of bubbles delves into branches of behavioural finance and the efficient market theory. Having in mind that bubbles put massive pressure on countries or in some cases the world economy it leads to the question in how far Central Banks can avoid bubbles or cushion them with their monetary instruments. An evaluation of this research question with the support of a structural VAR shows in how far monetary policy should include this area as one of their targets. This topic has also practical implications, since an understanding of the forces forming a bubble and the ability to identify their various phases could be of great use for investors who could theoretically restrain from irrational trading or better evaluate the impacts of monetary policy on the stock market. Besides investors this book targets researchers and readers interested in economics.