Was there a “vernacular science of financial markets” in France during the nineteenth century? A comment on Preda’s “Informative prices, rational investors” [r-libre/1178]

Jovanovic, Franck (2006). Was there a “vernacular science of financial markets” in France during the nineteenth century? A comment on Preda’s “Informative prices, rational investors”. History of Political Economy, 38 (3), 531-545.

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Item Type:	Journal Articles
Refereed:	Yes
Status:	Published
Abstract:	This article deals with the emergence of the random walk hypothesis and the nineteenth-century “Science of Financial Investments”. It examines the relevance to explain this emergence thanks to an international “vernacular science of financial markets”, as Alex Preda (2004) suggested. The article shows that 1) there is no existence of such an international “vernacular science of financial markets”; 2) the relevance of the distinction between vernacular economics and academic economics for economic or financial theoretical work in nineteenth-century France remains unclear. Finally, this distinction is not enough for explaining the introduction of the random walk hypothesis by Regnault (1863). Although Regnault’s book felt within a global movement, it took place in academic debates and had no similitude with other financial publications of that time: indeed, before Bachelier (1900), the use of the probability calculus to analyze and to give a theoretical explanation to stock price variations was not common.
Depositor:	Jovanovic, Franck
Owner / Manager:	Franck Jovanovic
Deposited:	11 Sep 2017 15:42
Last Modified:	11 Sep 2017 15:42

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