Understanding Asymmetric Information - What is it?

The motivation for this post came recently while I was waiting for one of my regular Morning ABC Radio crosses. I heard that I was to be followed by Joseph Stiglitz. 

Now that name may not mean much to most readers. But to the academic paper readers out there, we were about to hear from one of the giants of the economic space.

As background, Mr Stiglitz is an American economist. He is a Professor at the Columbia Business School in New York, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2001, along with George Akerlof and Michael Spence. Their analysis of markets with asymmetric information was ground breaking work at the time, and it laid the foundations for understanding how information asymmetry affects market outcomes. Since then he has advised governments globally, represented peak economic bodies and written countless books.

While not specifically relating to financial ratios used within Stockopedia, this piece is a little of the background of Asymmetric Information. I will spare us all the mathematics, though in my view appreciating that there is "better quality" information out there is important accept. That is why a robust framework like StockRanks and their...