The asymmetry of information waves in economic thinking: The experience of financial crises

Abstract

The paper considers the asymmetry of information waves and the relation of their news trails with market indicators and exchange rates. It draws on the crises of 1998, 2008 and 2014. The relationship between information waves and scenarios for the development of economic crises is established by comparing the frequency characteristics of certain phrases in the media and the group of financial indicators. A comparative and content analysis shows that the representation of crises in the Russian media coincides with the real state of the national economy only at the initial stage, after which the crises cease to be reflected in economic thinking in accordance with their significance. Thus, the paper concludes that the scale of economic crises is predictable in terms of the size of the information waves’ acute phase generated by these crises.