IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/102988.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Making the grade: infrastructural semiotics and derivative market outcomes on the Chicago Board of Trade and New Orleans Cotton Exchange, 1856–1909

Author

Listed:
  • Pinzur, David

Abstract

This paper contributes to a socio-technical analysis of derivatives by offering an infrastructural explanation of divergent outcomes on two early American futures markets. It takes as the starting-point of analysis the classification systems by which these futures markets were constitutively linked to underlying markets in agricultural commodities. Despite the formal similarity of these systems, their contrasting implementation–i.e. how grading was accomplished and integrated into practice–produced classifications with dissimilar semiotic qualities. This semiotic distinction is shown to have promoted divergent economic behaviours and outcomes on the two markets: high-risk speculation and volatility on the Chicago Board of Trade, low-risk hedging and stability on the New Orleans Cotton Exchange. The paper thus argues that treating classifications in their semiotic capacity yields an analysis that can connect foundational infrastructures and market-level outcomes in meaningful, non-deterministic ways.

Suggested Citation

  • Pinzur, David, 2016. "Making the grade: infrastructural semiotics and derivative market outcomes on the Chicago Board of Trade and New Orleans Cotton Exchange, 1856–1909," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 102988, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:102988
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/102988/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6cbt691h0h8o9q5rf0apko0pda is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Poon, Martha, 2009. "From new deal institutions to capital markets: Commercial consumer risk scores and the making of subprime mortgage finance," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 654-674, July.
    3. Greif, Avner, 1989. "Reputation and Coalitions in Medieval Trade: Evidence on the Maghribi Traders," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(4), pages 857-882, December.
    4. Miller, Peter & O'Leary, Ted, 1987. "Accounting and the construction of the governable person," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 235-265, April.
    5. Ross Williams, 2013. "Introduction," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 46(4), pages 460-461, December.
    6. Zaloom, Caitlin, 2006. "Out of the Pits," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226978130, Febrero.
    7. Martha Poon, 2009. "From New Deal institutions to capital markets: commercial consumer risk scores and the making of subprime mortgage finance," Post-Print halshs-00359712, HAL.
    8. Susan Leigh Star & Karen Ruhleder, 1996. "Steps Toward an Ecology of Infrastructure: Design and Access for Large Information Spaces," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 7(1), pages 111-134, March.
    9. Joseph Santos, 2002. "Did Futures Markets Stabilise US Grain Prices?," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(1), pages 25-36, March.
    10. Fourcade, Marion & Healy, Kieran, 2013. "Classification situations: Life-chances in the neoliberal era," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 559-572.
    11. Martha Poon, 2009. "From New Deal institutions to capital markets: commercial consumer risk scores and the making of subprime mortgage finance," Working Papers halshs-00359712, HAL.
    12. Daniel Beunza & David Stark, 2004. "Tools of the trade: the socio-technology of arbitrage in a Wall Street trading room," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 13(2), pages 369-400, April.
    13. Martha Poon, 2009. "From New Deal institutions to capital markets: commercial consumer risk scores and the making of subprime mortgage finance," CSI Working Papers Series 014, Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation (CSI), Mines ParisTech.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kornberger Martin & Pflueger Dane & Mouritsen Jan, 2017. "Evaluative infrastructures : Accounting for platform organization," Post-Print hal-02276737, HAL.
    2. Kornberger, Martin & Pflueger, Dane & Mouritsen, Jan, 2017. "Evaluative infrastructures: Accounting for platform organization," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 79-95.
    3. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/4ff88coju39nk8b11b5ghfc1ff is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Cooper, Christine, 2015. "Entrepreneurs of the self: The development of management control since 1976," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 14-24.
    5. Olivier Godechot, 2019. "Conclusion: What finance manufactures," Post-Print hal-03393812, HAL.
    6. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/4ff88coju39nk8b11b5ghfc1ff is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Alaimo, Cristina & Kallinikos, Jannis, 2022. "Organizations decentered: data objects, technology and knowledge," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 112470, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Bill Maurer, 2012. "Finance 2.0," Chapters, in: James G. Carrier (ed.), A Handbook of Economic Anthropology, Second Edition, chapter 11, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Lacan, Laure & Lazarus, Jeanne, 2015. "A relationship and a practice: On the French sociology of credit," MaxPo Discussion Paper Series 15/1, Max Planck Sciences Po Center on Coping with Instability in Market Societies (MaxPo).
    10. Fourcade, Marion & Healy, Kieran, 2013. "Classification situations: Life-chances in the neoliberal era," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 559-572.
    11. Marion Fourcade & Kieran Healy, 2013. "Classification situations: Life-chances in the neoliberal era," Post-Print hal-03470535, HAL.
    12. Luis Araujo & Katy Mason, 2021. "Markets, infrastructures and infrastructuring markets," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 11(3), pages 240-251, December.
    13. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6cbt691h0h8o9q5rf0apko0pda is not listed on IDEAS
    14. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/6cbt691h0h8o9q5rf0apko0pda is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Arena, Marika & Arnaboldi, Michela & Palermo, Tommaso, 2017. "The dynamics of (dis)integrated risk management: a comparative field study," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 84285, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Scott, Susan V., 2010. "Understanding the characteristics of techno-innovation in an era of self-regulated financial services," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 37867, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Godechot, Olivier, 2015. "Financialization is marketization! A study on the respective impact of various dimensions of financialization on the increase in global inequality," MaxPo Discussion Paper Series 15/3, Max Planck Sciences Po Center on Coping with Instability in Market Societies (MaxPo).
    18. Bernardo Bátiz-Lazo, 2017. "Between Novelty and Fashion: Risk Management and the Adoption of Computers in Retail Banking," Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance, in: Korinna Schönhärl (ed.), Decision Taking, Confidence and Risk Management in Banks from Early Modernity to the 20th Century, pages 189-207, Palgrave Macmillan.
    19. McFall, Liz, 2014. "Devising Consumption: cultural economies of insurance, credit and spending," OSF Preprints at2nv, Center for Open Science.
    20. Cochoy, Franck & Dubuisson-Quellier, Sophie, 2013. "The sociology of market work," economic sociology. perspectives and conversations, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, vol. 15(1), pages 4-11.
    21. Martinez, Daniel E. & Pflueger, Dane & Palermo, Tommaso, 2022. "Accounting and the territorialization of markets: A field study of the Colorado cannabis market," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    22. Lipartito, Kenneth, 2011. "The narrative and the algorithm: Genres of credit reporting from the nineteenth century to today," MPRA Paper 28142, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    23. Eglė Jakučionytė & Swapnil Singh, 2023. "Emergence of subprime lending in minority neighborhoods," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 51(6), pages 1547-1583, November.
    24. Driouchi, Tarik & So, Raymond H.Y. & Trigeorgis, Lenos, 2020. "Investor ambiguity, systemic banking risk and economic activity: The case of too-big-to-fail," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    classification; derivatives; infrastructure; semiotics; social studies of finance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • N0 - Economic History - - General
    • F3 - International Economics - - International Finance
    • G3 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:102988. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.