IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jaecon/v70y2020i1s0165410120300367.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can social media distort price discovery? Evidence from merger rumors

Author

Listed:
  • Jia, Weishi
  • Redigolo, Giulia
  • Shu, Susan
  • Zhao, Jingran

Abstract

We study whether social media can play a negative information role by impeding price discovery in the presence of highly speculative rumors. We focus on merger rumors, where most do not materialize. We find that merger rumors accompanied by greater Twitter activity elicit greater immediate market reaction even though rumor-related Twitter activity is unrelated to the probability of merger realization. The price distortion associated with tweet volume persists weeks after a rumor and reverses only after eight weeks. The price distortion is more pronounced for rumors tweeted by Twitter users with greater social influence, for target firms with low institutional ownership, and for rumors that supply more details. Our evidence suggests that social media can be a rumor mill that hinders the market's price discovery of potentially false information.

Suggested Citation

  • Jia, Weishi & Redigolo, Giulia & Shu, Susan & Zhao, Jingran, 2020. "Can social media distort price discovery? Evidence from merger rumors," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jaecon:v:70:y:2020:i:1:s0165410120300367
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jacceco.2020.101334
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165410120300367
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jacceco.2020.101334?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vicki Wei Tang, 2018. "Wisdom of Crowds: Cross‐Sectional Variation in the Informativeness of Third‐Party‐Generated Product Information on Twitter," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 989-1034, June.
    2. Hawkins, Scott A & Hoch, Stephen J, 1992. "Low-Involvement Learning: Memory without Evaluation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 19(2), pages 212-225, September.
    3. Massa, Massimo & Qian, Wenlan & Xu, Weibiao & Zhang, Hong, 2015. "Competition of the informed: Does the presence of short sellers affect insider selling?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(2), pages 268-288.
    4. Dang, Tung Lam & Moshirian, Fariborz & Zhang, Bohui, 2015. "Commonality in news around the world," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 82-110.
    5. Stock, James H & Wright, Jonathan H & Yogo, Motohiro, 2002. "A Survey of Weak Instruments and Weak Identification in Generalized Method of Moments," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(4), pages 518-529, October.
    6. Nagel, Stefan, 2005. "Short sales, institutional investors and the cross-section of stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(2), pages 277-309, November.
    7. Core, John E. & Guay, Wayne & Larcker, David F., 2008. "The power of the pen and executive compensation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 1-25, April.
    8. Gregory S. Miller & Douglas J. Skinner, 2015. "The Evolving Disclosure Landscape: How Changes in Technology, the Media, and Capital Markets Are Affecting Disclosure," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 221-239, May.
    9. Lili Dai & Jerry T. Parwada & Bohui Zhang, 2015. "The Governance Effect of the Media's News Dissemination Role: Evidence from Insider Trading," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 331-366, May.
    10. Adam C. Kolasinski & Adam V. Reed & Matthew C. Ringgenberg, 2013. "A Multiple Lender Approach to Understanding Supply and Search in the Equity Lending Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(2), pages 559-595, April.
    11. Peter M. DeMarzo & Dimitri Vayanos & Jeffrey Zwiebel, 2003. "Persuasion Bias, Social Influence, and Unidimensional Opinions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(3), pages 909-968.
    12. Matthew Gentzkow & Jesse M. Shapiro, 2010. "What Drives Media Slant? Evidence From U.S. Daily Newspapers," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 78(1), pages 35-71, January.
    13. Umit G. Gurun & Alexander W. Butler, 2012. "Don't Believe the Hype: Local Media Slant, Local Advertising, and Firm Value," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(2), pages 561-598, April.
    14. K. J. Martijn Cremers & Vinay B. Nair & Kose John, 2009. "Takeovers and the Cross-Section of Returns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(4), pages 1409-1445, April.
    15. Samuel M. Hartzmark & Kelly Shue, 2018. "A Tough Act to Follow: Contrast Effects in Financial Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 73(4), pages 1567-1613, August.
    16. Olivier Toubia & Andrew T. Stephen, 2013. "Intrinsic vs. Image-Related Utility in Social Media: Why Do People Contribute Content to Twitter?," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(3), pages 368-392, May.
    17. Kenneth R. Ahern & Denis Sosyura, 2015. "Rumor Has It: Sensationalism in Financial Media," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(7), pages 2050-2093.
    18. Lian Fen Lee & Amy P. Hutton & Susan Shu, 2015. "The Role of Social Media in the Capital Market: Evidence from Consumer Product Recalls," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 367-404, May.
    19. Tim Loughran & Bill Mcdonald, 2011. "When Is a Liability Not a Liability? Textual Analysis, Dictionaries, and 10‐Ks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(1), pages 35-65, February.
    20. Hailiang Chen & Prabuddha De & Yu (Jeffrey) Hu & Byoung-Hyoun Hwang, 2014. "Wisdom of Crowds: The Value of Stock Opinions Transmitted Through Social Media," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(5), pages 1367-1403.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Wei & Wang, Pengfei & Li, Yi, 2021. "Do messages on online stock forums spur firm productivity?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    2. Papyrakis, Elissaios & Parcero, Osiris Jorge, 2022. "The psychology of mineral wealth: Empirical evidence from Kazakhstan," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    3. Wu, Chunying & Xiong, Xiong & Gao, Ya & Zhang, Jin, 2022. "Does social media distort price discovery? Evidence from rumor clarifications," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    4. Liu, Kaiyi & Yuan, Xianghui & Wang, Chen & Hou, Wenxuan, 2022. "Silence is golden? Responses to rumors by Chinese listed firms," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    5. Wang, Xinjie & Xiang, Zhiqiang & Xu, Weike & Yuan, Peixuan, 2022. "The causal relationship between social media sentiment and stock return: Experimental evidence from an online message forum," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    6. Daniel Bradley & Jan Hanousek & Russell Jame & Zicheng Xiao, 2021. "Place your bets? The market consequences of investment advice on Reddit’s Wallstreetbets," MENDELU Working Papers in Business and Economics 2021-76, Mendel University in Brno, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    7. Cho, Hyunkwon & Choi, Ga-Young & Lee, Joonil, 2023. "The impact of internet articles on investor trading decisions by investor types: Evidence from Korean stock market," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    8. Cai, Wenwu & Quan, Xiaofeng & Zhu, Zhenmei (Judy), 2023. "Rumors in the sky: Corporate rumors and stock price synchronicity," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    9. Alexander, Anna & Pilonato, Silvia & Redigolo, Giulia, 2023. "Do institutional donors value social media activity and engagement? Empirical evidence on Italian non-profit grantees," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(5).
    10. Alperovych, Yan & Cumming, Douglas & Czellar, Veronika & Groh, Alexander, 2021. "M&A rumors about unlisted firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(3), pages 1324-1339.
    11. Andres, Christian & Bazhutov, Dmitry & Cumming, Douglas J. & Limbach, Peter, 2021. "Does Speculative News Hurt Productivity? Evidence from Takeover Rumors," CFR Working Papers 21-02, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR), revised 2021.
    12. Sun, Kunpeng & Wang, Dan & Xiao, Xing, 2022. "Another victory of retail investors: Social media's monitoring role on firms' earnings management," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    13. Felix Reichenbach & Martin Walther, 2023. "Financial recommendations on Reddit, stock returns and cumulative prospect theory," Digital Finance, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 421-448, June.
    14. Campbell, Brett & Drake, Michael & Thornock, Jacob & Twedt, Brady, 2023. "Earnings Virality," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(1).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Blankespoor, Elizabeth & deHaan, Ed & Marinovic, Iván, 2020. "Disclosure processing costs, investors’ information choice, and equity market outcomes: A review," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2).
    2. Lili Dai & Rui Shen & Bohui Zhang, 2021. "Does the media spotlight burn or spur innovation?," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 343-390, March.
    3. Gregory S. Miller & Douglas J. Skinner, 2015. "The Evolving Disclosure Landscape: How Changes in Technology, the Media, and Capital Markets Are Affecting Disclosure," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 221-239, May.
    4. Gao, Xin & Xu, Weidong & Li, Donghui, 2022. "Media coverage and corporate risk-taking: International evidence," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    5. Wu, Chunying & Xiong, Xiong & Gao, Ya & Zhang, Jin, 2022. "Does social media distort price discovery? Evidence from rumor clarifications," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    6. Dang, Tung Lam & Dang, Man & Hoang, Luong & Nguyen, Lily & Phan, Hoang Long, 2020. "Media coverage and stock price synchronicity," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    7. Dang, Tung Lam & Dang, Viet Anh & Moshirian, Fariborz & Nguyen, Lily & Zhang, Bohui, 2019. "News media coverage and corporate leverage adjustments," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    8. Baloria, Vishal P. & Heese, Jonas, 2018. "The effects of media slant on firm behavior," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(1), pages 184-202.
    9. Liao, Rose & Wang, Xinjie & Wu, Ge, 2021. "The role of media in mergers and acquisitions," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    10. Le Lin & Ke Liao & Deren Xie, 2023. "When Investors Speak, Do Firms Listen? The Role of Investors' Dividend‐related Complaints from Online Earnings Communication Conferences," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 59(1), pages 32-75, March.
    11. Yi Ru & Jian Xue & Yuan Zhang & Xin Zhou, 2020. "Social connections between media and firm executives and the properties of media reporting," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 963-1001, September.
    12. Tung L. Dang & Thi H. H. Huynh & Manh T. Nguyen, 2021. "Media attention and firm value: International evidence," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 21(3), pages 865-894, September.
    13. Lei, Lijun (Gillian) & Li, Yutao & Luo, Yan, 2019. "Production and dissemination of corporate information in social media: A review," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 29-43.
    14. Campbell, Brett & Drake, Michael & Thornock, Jacob & Twedt, Brady, 2023. "Earnings Virality," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(1).
    15. Svenja Dube & Chenqi Zhu, 2021. "The Disciplinary Effect of Social Media: Evidence from Firms' Responses to Glassdoor Reviews," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(5), pages 1783-1825, December.
    16. Nicholas M. Guest, 2021. "The Information Role of the Media in Earnings News," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(3), pages 1021-1076, June.
    17. Jacobs, Heiko, 2020. "Hype or help? Journalists’ perceptions of mispriced stocks," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 550-565.
    18. Umar, Tarik, 2022. "Complexity aversion when SeekingAlpha," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2).
    19. Jia, Ming & Ruan, Hongfei & Zhang, Zhe, 2017. "How rumors fly," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 33-45.
    20. Wu, Yanling & Tian, Gary Gang, 2021. "Public relations expenditure, media tone, and regulatory decisions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social media; Twitter; Merger and acquisition; Rumor; Merger rumor; Persuasion bias;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • M15 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - IT Management
    • M40 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - General
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jaecon:v:70:y:2020:i:1:s0165410120300367. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jae .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.