Market Fundamentals versus Price-Level Bubbles: The First Tests

Abstract

When current market price depends partly on the expected rate of market price change, it is possible that the market will launch itself onto a price bubble with price being driven by arbitrary, self-fulfilling elements in expectations. The purpose of this paper is to provide some tests of the proposition that bubbles were absent during the German hyperinflation, a proposition we are unable to reject. The test methodology that we propose is general enough to be applied to other historical or contemporary episodes.