The increasing relevance of the stock market in the world: A new scenario

This document has three objectives: firstly, to register the quantitative and qualitative changes carried out in the securities market, especially in the stock exchange; secondly, to state the factors leading to changes in such an entity; and finally, to point out the economic and social consequences that could arise from this new scenario. This working paper is part of a wider research entitled “BUBBLES AND INSTABILITY”, which is intended to try and clarify the reasons why the bubbles, especially financial bubbles, are a current issue and one of the main aspects to be considered within these phenomena. The first preview of this current document was published in the same collection: Bubbles and Instability: The State of the Art. Working Paper no. 3/2004. This will be released in Análisis Financiero (2005).