Rasmus K. Rendsvig: First considerations on political bubbles

Rasmus K. Rendsvig, postdoctoral researcher at Center for Information and Bubble Studies, University of Copenhagen.

Abstract:
“Bubbles” are usually considered unwelcome and destabilizing phenomena associated with finance and real estate markets. Generally a bubble has developed when assets trade at prices far exceeding the estimated fundamental value. Guiding research principles of The Center for Information and Bubble Studies (CIBS) are that the notion of bubble formation can be meaningfully generalized to apply to non-financial "markets" braodly construed, that bubble formation essentially relies on information dynamics among deliberating agents who are collectively susceptible to social psychological mechanisms like group-thinking, pluralistic ignorance and lemming effects, and that such structural information processes determinate market structures and conditions may make for more or less bubble-hospitable environments. In this talk, I will present elements of this research program, with the aim of providing some initial thoughts on the conceptualization of bubbles in the political public sphere.