Efficient market hypothesis is a paper authored by Eugene F Fama published in the Journal of Finance in

the year 19**. In this paper Fama reviews literature written on the efficient market models and
postulates that an efficient market is the one in which prices reflect the available information and the
information is not monopolized the investors have costless access to the information and market
absorbs and reflect the available information.
In such markets decisions can be made based on available information and the information doesnt just
include announcement of dividends, annual earnings and stock splits but the investors agree upon the
implications of available information on market and transactions reflect the available information.

This hypothesis remains disputed although it is a seminal work in modern finance theory and the most
cited finance paper published till date. The empirical work on this theory has preceded the theoretical
work. The empirical data was available for a long time and then the need to formulate a theory arised.

Empirical research on the efficient market models has primarily been concerned with empirical data to
find out whether market fully reflects available information. Empirical work has evolved historically as
the markets evolved.