The Dutch Tulip Bubble of the 1630s remains one of the most discussed episodes in financial history. It is often presented as the first modern speculative bubble, a dramatic case in which prices detached from material value and rose because buyers expected to sell at even higher prices. While many popular accounts simplify the event into a story of irrational greed, the tulip market was more complex. Tulips were not only goods traded for profit. They were luxury objects, mark

Author:   Dr. Nadia El-Mansour Affiliation:   Independent Researcher Abstract For most of the twentieth century, economic theory was built on the assumption that individuals behave rationally and that markets function as efficient mechanisms for allocating resources. At the core of this paradigm lies the notion that investors optimize utility, process information accurately, and collectively drive markets toward equilibrium. However, mounting evidence from psychology, sociolo