The Causes and Consequences of recent financial Market Bubblers

ISDEX, an authoritative and widely cited internet stock index, rose from 100 in January 1996 to 1100 in February 2000 an incredible increase of about 1000% in four years - only to fall down to 600 in May 2000 - an incredible decrease of about 45% in four months. Amongst big rises and falls in the history of stock market prices, this episode ranks amongst the most spectacular. The RFS-IU conference focuses on these recent financial market bubbles. It aims to address the following three questions: a) Was it a bubble? (How do you define bubbles ex-ante? Can you even define bubbles ex-post?) b) What caused it? (Investors? Managers? Financial advisors? Government policies? Media? Academics?) c) Did it matter? (Any real effects?) The answers to these three research questions touch upon all sub-disciplines of finance - asset pricing, corporate finance, market microstructure, behavioral finance, international finance, law and finance, and real estate finance.