Mirror: Just for study: this, the, or without articles

예문:

• Economists and finance professors have long studied prices in speculative markets such as the stock market and the foreign exchange market. One important hypothesis is that speculative markets tend to be "efficient." This finding has stirred great controversy in the economics profession and with financial analysts.

Take a look at the flow of scenes or actions:

• There has been something to be studied and some people have engaged: economists and finance professors, (prices in) speculative markets.
• one hypothesis with some argument came up, and some finding has been disclosed. 
• Great controversy occurred.

Think about: something like a shift in the descriptive mode: from hypothesis(a theory or an explanation which has not yet been proved to be correct) to finding

And, Take one sentence:

One important hypothesis is that speculative markets tend to be "efficient."

Suppose that the sentence above is given, which is followed by (1), (2), or (3):

(1) This finding has stirred great controversy ...
(2) The finding has stirred great controversy ...
(3) Findings have stirred great controversy ...

In each case, let's think about changing flows of meaning from hypothesis to finding.

* * *

Simply 'this finding' can mean just the finding of that hypothesis. If so, the above consideration is a mistake in understanding some elements of style..