It seems that economists at Queen's have a lot to say about the origins of the Mafia. After Chris Colvin's review was picked up by Monday's FT, I learned that Arcangelo Dimico and co-authors have just finished a working paper on the origins of the Mafia. Their paper is entitled "Origins of the Sicilian Mafia: The Market for Lemons" - you can access it here.
My colleague and former PhD student Gareth Campbell has created a website about the British Railway Mania - click here . This episode has been described by the Economist as probably the greatest bubble in human history. Gareth's website provides background on the Mania and posits some explanations for the 'bubble'. In his explanation of why the bubble happened, Gareth places a lot of emphasis on investor myopia regarding future dividends and uncalled capital. His study of investors during the episode does not support the view that this episode was fuelled by naive and irrational investors.
