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The market process of capitalization: a laboratory experiment on the effectiveness of private information

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Eduard Braun at Clausthal University of Technology
Eduard Braun
Wiebke Roß
Wiebke Roß
Wiebke Roß
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The notion of present value is an integral part of economics. So far, however, its rationale rests upon the well-known neoclassical assumptions of complete information and perfect rationality. The present value derives as the result of a calculation that requires the knowledge of the discount rate and the future returns of the evaluated assets. This paper presents a laboratory experiment that demonstrates that the present value of assets can also be discovered by participants of a production process endowed with incomplete information. The knowledge concerning future returns is not given to any one, but dispersed among the participants who, in addition, have no idea of their position in the production chain. In accordance with Hayek’s theory of the market process as a discovery procedure, the present value is found without any one subject being able to determine it individually.
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... They have also integrated these observations to propound a capital-focused economic approach that accounts for these institutions (Hodgson, 2014(Hodgson, , 2015. Recently, efforts towards elucidating the market process based on this capital approach have been initiated by Braun (2017) and Braun and Roß (2018). Although the role of financial accounting in balancing the market process wasn't thoroughly discussed, scholars including Waymire (2010, 2019) and Braun (2019) have argued that financial reporting, specifically the revenue-expense approach, is a vital component of the market process. ...
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