Vivian Lei

Market Efficiency: Evidence from a No-Bubble Asset Market Experiment

We report the results of an experiment that demonstrates that market experience is not necessary to eliminate bubbles in the type of asset markets studied in Smith et al. (1988). We introduce a pre-market phase in which subjects experience a dividend flow themselves by literally observing and receiving dividends for 12 periods. The robust bubble–crash phenomenon never occurs in our experiment. Our results provide strong evidence that so long as a majority of the subjects have full understanding of the structure of the dividend, market efficiency can be ensured.

INTERNATIONAL INTEGRATION AND GROWTH: A SURVEY AND EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION

The authors attempt a comprehensive assessment of different forms of international integration on growth. In particular, the paper considers the impact of trade flows, of inward foreign direct investment, of preferential treatment of less-developed countries, and of membership in trade blocs. Results confirm that general openness and foreign direct investment into a country do lead to increased growth; that membership in a trade bloc facilitates growth; and that the variation in income in the trade bloc also encourages more rapid growth among member countries. Copyright 2001 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd

An Experimental Test of an Optimal Growth Model

This paper describes the design and behavior of an experimental economy with the structure of the Ramsey-Cass-Koopmans model of optimal growth. The experiment includes three different implementations of the model: a decentralized implementation with multiple agents and a market for capital, a treatment where individual subjects are placed in the role of social planners, and a treatment where the social planner consists of five agents making a joint decision. The findings highlight the role of market institutions in facilitating convergence to the optimal steady state. (JEL C91, C92, O40)

Before and After: The Impact of a Real Bubble Crash on Investors’ Trading Behavior in the Lab

We report the results of an experiment designed to study whether or not having experienced booms and crashes in naturally occurring asset markets affects subjects’ trading behavior in the lab. Active investors in the Shanghai Stock Exchange were recruited to participate in either the Boom treatment, conducted in June 2007 after the Shanghai Stock Exchange had had a bull market for almost 2 years, or the Crash treatment, conducted in August 2008 after the SSE composite index had plummeted almost 60% from its high reached in October 2007. We find that, compared to those in the Crash treatment, subjects in the Boom treatment were much more active when participating in our experimental asset markets in that they tended to made bigger trades and preferred to hold more shares than cash. These behavioral differences cannot be explained by the overconfidence hypothesis.

Do separation rules matter? An experimental study of commitment

Coasian reasoning predicts that the conditions under which parties may terminate a partnership will affect bargaining between partners, but not the durability of partnerships. This paper endeavors to test both predictions in an experimental setting that allows agents to form and end partnerships endogenously and to bargain over resources. We find that separation rules have less effect on bargaining than predicted by theory, but larger effects on partnership stability. Perhaps surprisingly, agents who are weaker relative to their partners are more successful when either party can end a partnership unilaterally than when both must consent to a separation.