causal

Switching Buyer/Seller Roles Drives Price Instability

In markets where participants can switch between being a buyer or a seller depending on price (like stock or housing markets), prices become unstable and erratic, unlike role-specialized markets such as haircuts where one is always a buyer.

causalpending

Speaker

Vernon Smith

Evidence Quote

depending upon the price, you may switch from being a buyer to a seller. And that accounts for a lot of the problems. What we observe is a lot of instability and erratic behavior of prices.

Source

Vernon Smith on Adam Smith and the Human EnterpriseEconTalk
Created: 6/13/2026, 12:22:45 AM

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