Cracking the enigma of asset bubbles with narratives

Abstract

The hysteria and destruction created by asset bubbles have garnered widespread attention in recent years, resulting in a wealth of studies on these events from a range of disciplines. However, despite these efforts, we, as a diverse research community, have failed to predict, prevent, and even explain asset bubbles, while bouts of speculative mania continue to wreak havoc on the world’s economies. We argue that periods of intense market speculation are driven by narratives and narrative thought, and thus narrative research represents a promising alternative by which we may ultimately be able to crack the enigma of asset bubbles. In this article, we explain the core reasons behind this argument, outline a three-stage narrative perspective of asset bubble formation, and provide a research agenda for future narrative studies on these events.