David Easley, Henry Scarborough Professor of Social Science at Cornell University, delves into his theoretical research that identifies externalities in the banking system which can lead to a contagion of bad events. He also shares new research detailing how financial market participants with different sets of beliefs can produce suboptimal market outcomes, illustrated through a simple example about renovating the Ithaca Commons: what should the Mayor do if everyone agrees to renovate the Commons but they want to do so for contradictory reasons? Easley also shares his research about bitcoin transaction fees and then sheds some light on what it is like to work with one’s spouse; Easley’s spouse is Maureen O’Hara, who was previously featured on Present Value!

Links from the Episode at presentvaluepodcast.com

Episode Article: David Easley on financial contagion and the effect of contradictory beliefs on market optimality

Faculty Page: David Easley - College of Arts and Sciences, Cornell

MOOC: Networks, Crowds and Markets (edX online course)

Book: Networks, Crowds and Markets: Reasoning About a Highly Connected World (amazon link)