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Art Market Inefficiency

Author Info

  • Geraldine David
  • Kim Oosterlinck
  • Ariane Szafarz

Abstract

Art is often used as an investment vehicle. Given the importance of market efficiency in finance, we use a large auction-based index to test whether the art market is weakly efficient. Evidence reveals that returns on artworks exhibit high positive auto-correlation. We attribute this result to price truncation resulting from unobservable reserve prices in auctions. We conclude that the art market is not efficient, mainly because price formation is opaque to outsiders who lack information on unsold artworks.

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Paper provided by ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles in its series ULB Institutional Repository with number 2013/145737.

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Date of creation: Oct 2013
Date of revision:
Publication status: Published in: Economics letters (2013) v.121,p.23-25
Handle: RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/145737
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CP135, 50, avenue F.D. Roosevelt, 1050 Bruxelles

Web page: http://difusion.ulb.ac.be

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • Z11 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economics of the Arts and Literature
  • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
  • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
  • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions
  • D84 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Expectations; Speculations

References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Ashenfelter, Orley, 1989. "How Auctions Work for Wine and Art," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 3(3), pages 23-36, Summer.
  2. Luc Renneboog & Christophe Spaenjers, 2013. "Buying Beauty: On Prices and Returns in the Art Market," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(1), pages 36-53, February.
  3. Orley Ashenfelter & Kathryn Graddy, 2011. "Sale Rates and Price Movements in Art Auctions," Working Papers 1294, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
  4. Fabien Bocart & Kim Oosterlinck, 2011. "Discoveries of Fakes: their Impact on the Art Market," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/142704, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
  5. Collins, Alan & Scorcu, Antonello & Zanola, Roberto, 2009. "Reconsidering hedonic art price indexes," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 104(2), pages 57-60, August.
  6. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Publishing House "SINERGIA PRESS", vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
  7. Jianping Mei & Michael Moses, 2002. "Art as an Investment and the Underperformance of Masterpieces," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1656-1668, December.
  8. Throsby, David, 1994. "The Production and Consumption of the Arts: A View of Cultural Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 32(1), pages 1-29, March.
  9. Pesando, James E, 1993. "Art as an Investment: The Market for Modern Prints," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(5), pages 1075-89, December.
  10. Erdos, Péter & Ormos, Mihály, 2010. "Random walk theory and the weak-form efficiency of the US art auction prices," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 1062-1076, May.
  11. Dickey, David A & Fuller, Wayne A, 1981. "Likelihood Ratio Statistics for Autoregressive Time Series with a Unit Root," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(4), pages 1057-72, June.
  12. Goetzmann, William N, 1993. "Accounting for Taste: Art and the Financial Markets over Three Centuries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(5), pages 1370-76, December.
  13. Andrew W. Lo, A. Craig MacKinlay, 1988. "Stock Market Prices do not Follow Random Walks: Evidence from a Simple Specification Test," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 1(1), pages 41-66.
  14. Fama, Eugene F, 1970. "Efficient Capital Markets: A Review of Theory and Empirical Work," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 25(2), pages 383-417, May.
  15. repec:pri:cepsud:214ashenfelter is not listed on IDEAS
  16. Frey, Bruno S. & Eichenberger, Reiner, 1995. "On the rate of return in the art market: Survey and evaluation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(3-4), pages 528-537, April.
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Cited by:

  1. Penasse, J.N.G. & Renneboog, L.D.R., 2014. "Bubbles and Trading Frenzies : Evidence from the Art Market," Discussion Paper 2014-068, Tilburg University, Tilburg Law and Economic Center.
  2. Marie Briere & Kim Oosterlinck & Ariane Szafarz, 2015. "Virtual Currency, Tangible Return: Portfolio Diversification with Bitcoins," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/226296, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
  3. Georges Gallais-Hamonno & Thi-hong-van Hoang & Kim Oosterlinck, 2015. "Informational Efficiency of the Clandestine and Official Gold Markets in Paris," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/177963, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
  4. Kim Oosterlinck & Jeremy Simon, 2015. "Financial Repression and Bond Market Efficiency: the Case of Italy during World War II," Working Papers CEB 15-001, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
  5. Julien Pénasse & Luc Renneboog & Christophe Spaenjers, 2014. "Sentiment and art prices," Post-Print hal-00982427, HAL.
  6. Zhitkov, Konstantin & Ratnikova, Tatiana, 2014. "The construction of hedonic price indices for fauvists’ paintings," Applied Econometrics, Publishing House "SINERGIA PRESS", vol. 35(3), pages 59-85.
  7. Goodness C. Aye & Tsangyao Chang & Wen-Yi Chen & Rangan Gupta & Mark Wohar, 2016. "Testing the Efficiency of the Art Market using Quantile-Based Unit Root Tests with Sharp and Smooth Breaks," Working Papers 201625, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
  8. Goodness C. Aye & Luis A. Gil-Alana & Rangan Gupta & Mark Wohar, 2016. "The Efficiency of the Art Market: Evidence from Variance Ratio Tests, Linear and Nonlinear Fractional Integration Approaches," Working Papers 201610, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.

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