A culture of greed: Bubble formation in experimental asset markets with greedy and non-greedy traders

This study investigates the relationship between the motive of greed and various asset market indicators, such as trading activity and bubble formation (i.e., mispricing, overpric-ing, and price amplitude). We ran experimental asset markets that allowed us to measure individuals' greed in order to create markets populated with greedy individuals and mar-kets with non-greedy individuals. Regarding trading activity, we found that greedier in-dividuals had higher trading activity on the individual level but not on the market level. On the market level, high-greed markets exhibited less frequent and smaller price bubbles than markets with less greedy traders. If our findings translate to actual markets, greed itself might not contribute to asset market bubbles.(c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )