424 research outputs found
The Effect of Rating Agencies on Herd Behaviour
No full textThis paper purports to provide some evidence on the effect of rating agencies on herding in financial markets. By means of a laboratory experiment, we investigate the effect and interaction between private and public information. Previous experiments showed that lemmings behaviour can survive in a market context where information is private (Hey and Morone, 2004), and that an experimental market can be very volatile and not efficient in transmitting information (Alfarano et al., 2006). We study experimentally, if socially undesirable behaviour – that survives in a market contest – may be eliminated owing to the presence of rating agencies
Boundary and interior equilibria: what drives convergence in a ‘beauty contest’?
No full textWe present an experimental game in the p-beauty framework. Building on the definitions of boundary and interior equilibria, we distinguish between ‘speed of convergence towards the game-theoretic equilibrium’ and ‘deviations of the guesses from the game-theoretic equilibrium’. In contrast to earlier findings (Güth et al., 2002), we show, under a different game parameterisation, that (i) interior equilibria initially produce smaller deviation of the guesses from the game-theoretic equilibrium compared to boundary equilibria; (ii) interior and boundary equilibria do not differ in the timeframe needed for convergence; (iii) the speed of convergence is higher in the boundary equilibrium
THE FOCAL POINT IN THE TRAVELLER'S DILEMMA: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY
No full textThis paper provides an experimental test of the traveller's dilemma. Our investigation aims to address the research hypothesis that introducing a reference point à la Schelling (set equal to the Pareto optimal solution) might drive people away from rationality even when the size of the penalty/reward is high. Experimental findings reported in this paper provide answers to this question showing that the reference point did not encourage coordination around the Pareto optimal choice
A simple model of herd behavior, a comment
No full textIn this paper we analyze the role played by the tie-breaking assumptions in Banerjee’s model of herd behavior. Changing one assumption we obtain three important results: players’ strategies are parameter dependent; an incorrect herd could be reversed; a correct herd is irreversible
Financial markets in the laboratory: an experimental analysis of some stylized facts
No full textThis paper provides experimental evidence explaining a number of stylized facts associated with the behaviour of financial returns, in particular the fat tailed nature of their distribution and the persistence in their volatility. By means of a laboratory experiment, we investigate the effect of the quantity and quality of information present in a financial market upon its stylized facts, showing how both the quality and quantity of information might have an impact on volatility clustering and the emergence of fat tail returns.Herd behaviour, Fat tail volatility clustering,
Individual and group behaviours in the traveller’s dilemma: an experimental study
No full textThis paper provides an experimental test of the traveller’s dilemma using individual and group data. Our investigation aims to address three fundamental research questions, which can be summarised as follows: (i) claims are affected by the size of the penalty/reward; (ii) individual decisions differ significantly from group decisions; (iii) individual claims are affected by the induction of a focal point a là Schelling. Experimental findings reported in this paper provide answers to each of these questions showing that: (i) although the size of the penalty/reward did not affect subject choices in the first-period, it played a key role in determining subjects’ behaviour in the repeated game; (ii) overall, groups behave more rationally, in the sense that they were always closer to the Nash equilibrium; (iii) the reference point did not encourage coordination around the Pareto optimal choice
Eliciting environmental preferences of Ghanaians in the laboratory: an incentive-compatible experiment
No full text2010 - In press
Estimating Individual and Group Preference Functionals Using Experimental Data
No full textIn this paper, the empirical performance of several preference functionals is assessed using individual and group experimental data. We investigate if there is a risky choice theory that fits group decisions better than alternative theories, and if there are significant differences between individual and group choices. Experimental findings reported in this paper provide answers to both of those questions showing that expected utility gains a "winning" position over higher-level functionals (we considered disappoint aversion and two variants of rank-dependent utility) when risky choices are undertaken by individuals as well as by small groups. However, in the group experiment, alternatives (and, most notably, disappoint aversion) improve their relative performance, a fact that hints at the existence of differences between individual and group choices. We interpreted this result as evidence that feelings-like disappointment aversion become stronger in group decision. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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