We study how markets help spread knowledge about solutions to the standard but computationally hard problem of maximizing value over indivisible goods subject to a budget constraint. In a first experiment, we f ind that complete markets are fairly ineffective. Still, participants use prices and...

Asset pricing theorists have recently started to study the market impact of differences in beliefs among participants. The analysis is often carried out in the framework of Radner's perfect foresight ('rational expectations') equilibrium. Here, we study when this makes sense. In particular, we...

We use measures of neural activity provided by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test the "realization utility" theory of investor behavior, which posits that people derive utility directly from the act of realizing gains and losses. Subjects traded stocks in an experimental market...

We investigate how long an insolvent debtor can avoid default when survival is beneficial to creditors collectively, but individual creditors gain by forcing early repayment. Theory predicts that the debt is not rolled over and default is immediate. With 23 experimental sessions, default is...

Prediction markets are a popular structure for a collective intelligence platform. The exact mechanism by which information known to the participating traders is incorporated into the market price is unknown. This paper demonstrates a novel method derived from the Kyle (1985) model for price...

This chapter focuses on the process of asset pricing. In field studies, it is customary to reject the random walk theory by identifying drift in prices. The drift is to be explained in terms of compensation for risk using some equilibrium asset pricing model. An alternative would be to view...

This chapter focuses on the geometry of how a market can solve systems of equations from market jaws to the newton method. Since market equilibrium can be interpreted as a solution to a system of equations, price discovery, as it called in the language of market makers, can be viewed as having...

Experiments constitute an indispensable tool to validate the building blocks of the theories which economists use not only to interpret events in the real world but also to inform regulation and economic policy. This is especially true in the context of multiple, interacting markets, which is...