We study crowded markets using a symmetric model of trading among strategic informed traders. Traders may have incorrect beliefs about markets' crowdedness; this distorts traders' strategies and market prices. When traders overestimate the crowdedness, they believe markets to be less liquid and...

The introduction of an economics textbook by Manikiw quotes Adam Smith regarding the invisible hand and deduces the following claims:1. Participants in market economies are motivated by self-interest. (SI)2. Decentralized market economies work very well, and maximize the welfare of society as a...

In this article I develop a proposal for the theoretical vantage point of the sociology of markets, focusing on the problem of the social order of markets. The initial premise is that markets are highly demanding arenas of social interaction, which can only operate if three inevitable...