Social Spirits. A New Research Agenda for the Sociology of the Stock Exchange

The enormous impact stock exchanges and financial markets have on contemporary economy and society deserve renewed, systematic attention by sociologists. This book provides students and researchers with the theoretical and methodological tools essential to explore new research paths in the sociology of finance. Together with an introduction to the efficient market theory, the random walk hypothesis and the heuristics and biases discovered by cognitive psychology and behavioral finance, different schools of thought directed at forecasting price movements are presented and critically examined. The book also displays empirical case studies dedicated to some institutional and informal restraints to speculation, as well as to the impact of the media on stock prices during the latest terrorist Attacks in Paris and in the recent Chinese financial crisis.