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Speculative Fever: Investor Contagion in the Housing Bubble

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  • Patrick Bayer
  • Kyle Mangum
  • James W. Roberts

Abstract

Historical anecdotes abound of new investors being drawn into a booming asset market, only to suffer when the market turns. While the role of investor contagion in asset bubbles has been explored extensively in the theoretical literature, causal empirical evidence on the topic is much rarer. This paper studies the recent boom and bust in the US housing market and establishes that many novice investors entered the market as a direct result of observing investing activity of multiple forms in their own neighborhoods and that "infected" investors performed poorly relative to other investors along several dimensions.

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  • Patrick Bayer & Kyle Mangum & James W. Roberts, 2021. "Speculative Fever: Investor Contagion in the Housing Bubble," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(2), pages 609-651, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:111:y:2021:i:2:p:609-51
    DOI: 10.1257/aer.20171611
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D84 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Expectations; Speculations
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G51 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Household Savings, Borrowing, Debt, and Wealth
    • R31 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Housing Supply and Markets

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