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Bubbles, Bluffs, and Greed

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  • Harashima, Taiji

Abstract

A rational bubble cannot theoretically exist if people have infinite horizons. This paper shows that a bubble-like phenomenon can be generated by a “bluff” even if people are rational and have infinite horizons. A bluff is defined as the behavior of an agent who pretends to possess private information to gain profits, particularly (false or misleading) information that the representative household’s rate of time preference (RTP RH) has changed. An alternative definition of the representative household indicates that households must ex ante generate an expected RTP RH to behave optimally, but the expected RTP RH has to be generated based on beliefs about the RTP RH. Bluffers exploit the opportunities derived from the fragile nature of the expected RTP RH. The driving force behind bluffs is greed because bluffers do not work hard to gain profits by producing and selling better goods and services more cheaply, but by disseminating contaminated information, or acting in such a way to mislead people into believing the expected RTP RH has changed.

Suggested Citation

  • Harashima, Taiji, 2015. "Bubbles, Bluffs, and Greed," MPRA Paper 64361, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:64361
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    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/64361/1/MPRA_paper_64361.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    8. Harashima, Taiji, 2014. "The Representative Household Assumption Requires sustainable Heterogeneity in Dynamic Models," MPRA Paper 57520, University Library of Munich, Germany.
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    10. Harashima, Taiji, 2010. "Sustainable Heterogeneity: Inequality, Growth, and Social Welfare in a Heterogeneous Population," MPRA Paper 22521, University Library of Munich, Germany.
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    Cited by:

    1. Harashima, Taiji, 2018. "Bubbles and Bluffs: Risk Lovers Can Survive Economically," MPRA Paper 83615, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Harashima, Taiji, 2020. "A Theory of the Credit-to-GDP Gap: Using Credit Gaps to Predict Financial Crises," MPRA Paper 111732, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Harashima, Taiji, 2018. "Do Households Actually Generate Rational Expectations? “Invisible Hand” for Steady State," MPRA Paper 88822, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bubble; Bluff; Greed; Time preference; The representative household; The financial supervision;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading

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