Congratulations to Christopher Coyle who graduated on Friday with a PhD from Queen's. Christopher is a product of the Queen's system, having studied Economics and Finance at BSc, MSc and PhD levels. He has also just joined the faculty at QUMS and QUCEH. Christopher's PhD looks at financial development and stability over the long run. He and I have a paper forthcoming in the Journal of Economic History, which looks at the role played by law and politics in the evolution of the UK corporate bond market from 1860 until 2000.
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.