RIEB Discussion Paper Series No.2022-36

Title

The Role of Information in the Rice Exchange: YAMAGATA Bantō's Great Knowledge (1806)

Abstract

The nineteenth-century French economist Jules Regnault has been reassessed as a pioneer of financial economics by Jovanovic and others. Although not as elaborate as Regnault's model for the random nature of stock prices, there was a Japanese philosopher in the same century whose ideas resembled Fama's (1970) market efficiency hypothesis that all available information is reflected in market prices. His name was YAMAGATA Bantō. This paper clarifies his contribution to the early concept of the efficient market hypothesis by analyzing his discussion on information presented in his 1806 Great Knowledge.

Keywords

YAMAGATA Bantō; Dōjima rice exchange; Efficient market hypothesis; Information; Speculation

Inquiries

Yasuo TAKATSUKI
Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration (RIEB)
Kobe University
Rokkodai-cho, Nada-ku, Kobe
657-8501 Japan
Phone: +81-78-803-7036

Taro HISAMATSU
Faculty of Commerce, Doshisha University