Equity Pricing, the Informational Regime and Efficient Markets: A Historical Perspective

Abstract:     
Share prices are the very heart of the stock market, and this paper traces the practices that have been historically applied in the stock market for pricing equity shares. The story begins at the Exchange Alley in 17th century London, England and travels its way to 20th century America. The study is in the context of (a) the informational regime that had its origin in England in the nineteenth century and was adopted for securities regulation in the United States in the 1930s, and (b) the Efficient Markets Hypothesis formulated in the economics discipline, as an offshoot of the informational regime.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 64

Keywords: asset pricing, stock markets, informational regime, efficient markets

JEL Classification: G38, K22, L50, N10, N11

working papers series