IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jeborg/v238y2025ics0167268125003300.html

(Mis)information diffusion and the financial market

Author

Listed:
  • Di Francesco, Tommaso
  • Torren-Peraire, Daniel

Abstract

This paper investigates the interplay between information diffusion in social networks and its impact on financial markets with an Agent-Based Model (ABM). Agents receive and exchange information about an observable stochastic component of the dividend process of a risky asset à la Grossman and Stiglitz (1980). A small proportion of the network has access to a private signal about the component, which can be clean (information) or distorted (misinformation). Other agents are uninformed and can receive information only from their peers. All agents are Bayesian, adjusting their beliefs according to the confidence they have in the source of information. We examine, by means of simulations, how information diffuses in the network and provide a framework to account for delayed absorption of shocks, that are not immediately priced as predicted by classical financial models. We investigate the effect of the network topology on the resulting asset price and evaluate under which condition misinformation diffusion can make the market more inefficient.

Suggested Citation

  • Di Francesco, Tommaso & Torren-Peraire, Daniel, 2025. "(Mis)information diffusion and the financial market," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 238(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:238:y:2025:i:c:s0167268125003300
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107211
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268125003300
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107211?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brock, William A. & Hommes, Cars H., 1998. "Heterogeneous beliefs and routes to chaos in a simple asset pricing model," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 22(8-9), pages 1235-1274, August.
    2. Lux, Thomas, 1998. "The socio-economic dynamics of speculative markets: interacting agents, chaos, and the fat tails of return distributions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 143-165, January.
    3. Day, Richard H. & Huang, Weihong, 1990. "Bulls, bears and market sheep," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 299-329, December.
    4. Peng, Lin & Xiong, Wei, 2006. "Investor attention, overconfidence and category learning," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 563-602, June.
    5. Mikhail Anufriev & Cars Hommes, 2012. "Evolutionary Selection of Individual Expectations and Aggregate Outcomes in Asset Pricing Experiments," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(4), pages 35-64, November.
    6. Hommes, Cars & Massaro, Domenico & Weber, Matthias, 2019. "Monetary policy under behavioral expectations: Theory and experiment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 193-212.
    7. Panchenko, Valentyn & Gerasymchuk, Sergiy & Pavlov, Oleg V., 2013. "Asset price dynamics with heterogeneous beliefs and local network interactions," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 2623-2642.
    8. Buechel, Berno & Hellmann, Tim & Klößner, Stefan, 2015. "Opinion dynamics and wisdom under conformity," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 240-257.
    9. Noemi Schmitt & Frank Westerhoff, 2017. "Heterogeneity, spontaneous coordination and extreme events within large-scale and small-scale agent-based financial market models," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 27(5), pages 1041-1070, November.
    10. Gale, Douglas & Kariv, Shachar, 2003. "Bayesian learning in social networks," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 329-346, November.
    11. Diks, Cees & Dindo, Pietro, 2008. "Informational differences and learning in an asset market with boundedly rational agents," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 1432-1465, May.
    12. Tramontana, Fabio & Westerhoff, Frank & Gardini, Laura, 2010. "On the complicated price dynamics of a simple one-dimensional discontinuous financial market model with heterogeneous interacting traders," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 74(3), pages 187-205, June.
    13. Tramontana, Fabio & Westerhoff, Frank & Gardini, Laura, 2013. "The bull and bear market model of Huang and Day: Some extensions and new results," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 2351-2370.
    14. Barberis, Nicholas & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert, 1998. "A model of investor sentiment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 307-343, September.
    15. Acemoglu, Daron & Ozdaglar, Asuman & ParandehGheibi, Ali, 2010. "Spread of (mis)information in social networks," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 194-227, November.
    16. Orlean, Andre, 1995. "Bayesian interactions and collective dynamics of opinion: Herd behavior and mimetic contagion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 257-274, October.
    17. Mario A. Bertella & Jonathas N. Silva & André L. Correa & Didier Sornette & Siew Ann Cheong, 2021. "The Influence of Confidence and Social Networks on an Agent-Based Model of Stock Exchange," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2021, pages 1-16, July.
    18. Pierre Collin‐Dufresne & Vyacheslav Fos, 2016. "Insider Trading, Stochastic Liquidity, and Equilibrium Prices," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 84, pages 1441-1475, July.
    19. Roland Benabou & Guy Laroque, 1992. "Using Privileged Information to Manipulate Markets: Insiders, Gurus, and Credibility," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(3), pages 921-958.
    20. Hasso, Tim & Müller, Daniel & Pelster, Matthias & Warkulat, Sonja, 2022. "Who participated in the GameStop frenzy? Evidence from brokerage accounts," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    21. Assenza, T. & Heemeijer, P. & Hommes, C.H. & Massaro, D., 2021. "Managing self-organization of expectations through monetary policy: A macro experiment," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 170-186.
    22. Christoph Aymanns & Jakob Foerster & Co-Pierre Georg & Matthias Weber, 2017. "Fake News in Social Networks," Papers 1708.06233, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2025.
    23. Raj Chetty, 2006. "A New Method of Estimating Risk Aversion," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1821-1834, December.
    24. 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).
    25. Rusinowska, Agnieszka & Taalaibekova, Akylai, 2019. "Opinion formation and targeting when persuaders have extreme and centrist opinions," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 9-27.
    26. Tedeschi, Gabriele & Iori, Giulia & Gallegati, Mauro, 2012. "Herding effects in order driven markets: The rise and fall of gurus," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 82-96.
    27. Pierre Collin‐Dufresne & Vyacheslav Fos, 2016. "Insider Trading, Stochastic Liquidity, and Equilibrium Prices," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 84(4), pages 1441-1475, July.
    28. Iori, Giulia, 2002. "A microsimulation of traders activity in the stock market: the role of heterogeneity, agents' interactions and trade frictions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 269-285, October.
    29. Krishna Dasaratha & Benjamin Golub & Nir Hak, 2018. "Learning from Neighbors about a Changing State," Papers 1801.02042, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2022.
    30. Simon Board & Moritz Meyer‐ter‐Vehn, 2021. "Learning Dynamics in Social Networks," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(6), pages 2601-2635, November.
    31. Franke, Reiner & Westerhoff, Frank, 2012. "Structural stochastic volatility in asset pricing dynamics: Estimation and model contest," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 1193-1211.
    32. Cont, Rama & Bouchaud, Jean-Philipe, 2000. "Herd Behavior And Aggregate Fluctuations In Financial Markets," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(2), pages 170-196, June.
    33. 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.
    34. William A. Brock & Cars H. Hommes, 2001. "A Rational Route to Randomness," Chapters, in: W. D. Dechert (ed.), Growth Theory, Nonlinear Dynamics and Economic Modelling, chapter 16, pages 402-438, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    35. Stefano Dellavigna & Joshua M. Pollet, 2009. "Investor Inattention and Friday Earnings Announcements," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(2), pages 709-749, April.
    36. De Long, J Bradford & Andrei Shleifer & Lawrence H. Summers & Robert J. Waldmann, 1990. "Noise Trader Risk in Financial Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(4), pages 703-738, August.
    37. Daron Acemoglu & Asuman Ozdaglar, 2011. "Opinion Dynamics and Learning in Social Networks," Dynamic Games and Applications, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 3-49, March.
    38. Thomas Gilbert & Shimon Kogan & Lars Lochstoer & Ataman Ozyildirim, 2012. "Investor Inattention and the Market Impact of Summary Statistics," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(2), pages 336-350, February.
    39. Kyle, Albert S, 1985. "Continuous Auctions and Insider Trading," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 53(6), pages 1315-1335, November.
    40. Gardini, L. & Radi, D. & Schmitt, N. & Sushko, I. & Westerhoff, F., 2022. "Causes of fragile stock market stability," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 483-498.
    41. Gardini, Laura & Radi, Davide & Schmitt, Noemi & Sushko, Iryna & Westerhoff, Frank, 2025. "On boom-bust stock market dynamics, animal spirits, and the destabilizing nature of temporarily attracting virtual fixed points," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 29, pages 1-1, January.
    42. Massaro, Domenico, 2013. "Heterogeneous expectations in monetary DSGE models," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 680-692.
    43. Bertasiute, Akvile & Massaro, Domenico & Weber, Matthias, 2020. "The behavioral economics of currency unions: Economic integration and monetary policy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    44. Vozlyublennaia, Nadia, 2014. "Investor attention, index performance, and return predictability," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 17-35.
    45. Di Francesco, Tommaso & Hommes, Cars, 2025. "Sentiment-driven speculation in financial markets with heterogeneous beliefs: A machine learning approach," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    46. Dyer, Joel & Cannon, Patrick & Farmer, J. Doyne & Schmon, Sebastian M., 2024. "Black-box Bayesian inference for agent-based models," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    47. David Hirshleifer & Sonya Seongyeon Lim & Siew Hong Teoh, 2009. "Driven to Distraction: Extraneous Events and Underreaction to Earnings News," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(5), pages 2289-2325, October.
    48. Alessio Emanuele Biondo, 2020. "Information versus imitation in a real-time agent-based model of financial markets," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 15(3), pages 613-631, July.
    49. Jegadeesh, Narasimhan & Titman, Sheridan, 1993. "Returns to Buying Winners and Selling Losers: Implications for Stock Market Efficiency," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(1), pages 65-91, March.
    50. Gur Huberman & Tomer Regev, 2001. "Contagious Speculation and a Cure for Cancer: A Nonevent that Made Stock Prices Soar," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(1), pages 387-396, February.
    51. Heemeijer, Peter & Hommes, Cars & Sonnemans, Joep & Tuinstra, Jan, 2009. "Price stability and volatility in markets with positive and negative expectations feedback: An experimental investigation," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 1052-1072, May.
    52. Abhijit V. Banerjee, 1992. "A Simple Model of Herd Behavior," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(3), pages 797-817.
    53. repec:osf:socarx:y4mkd_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    54. Anufriev, Mikhail & Assenza, Tiziana & Hommes, Cars & Massaro, Domenico, 2013. "Interest Rate Rules And Macroeconomic Stability Under Heterogeneous Expectations," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(8), pages 1574-1604, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Tommaso Di Francesco & Daniel Torren Peraire, 2024. "(Mis)information diffusion and the financial market," Papers 2412.16269, arXiv.org.
    2. Michael Hatcher & Tim Hellmann, 2024. "Communication, networks and asset price dynamics: a survey," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 19(1), pages 1-58, January.
    3. Roberto Dieci & Noemi Schmitt & Frank Westerhoff, 2025. "Boom–bust cycles and asset market participation waves: Momentum, value, risk, and herding," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 513-551, July.
    4. Tedeschi, Gabriele & Iori, Giulia & Gallegati, Mauro, 2012. "Herding effects in order driven markets: The rise and fall of gurus," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 82-96.
    5. Hommes, Cars H., 2006. "Heterogeneous Agent Models in Economics and Finance," Handbook of Computational Economics, in: Leigh Tesfatsion & Kenneth L. Judd (ed.), Handbook of Computational Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 23, pages 1109-1186, Elsevier.
    6. Hommes, Cars & Massaro, Domenico & Weber, Matthias, 2019. "Monetary policy under behavioral expectations: Theory and experiment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 193-212.
    7. E. Samanidou & E. Zschischang & D. Stauffer & T. Lux, 2001. "Microscopic Models of Financial Markets," Papers cond-mat/0110354, arXiv.org.
    8. Xue-Zhong He & Youwei Li, 2017. "The adaptiveness in stock markets: testing the stylized facts in the DAX 30," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 27(5), pages 1071-1094, November.
    9. Galanis, Giorgos & Kollias, Iraklis & Leventides, Ioanis & Lustenhouwer, Joep, 2025. "Generalizing heuristic switching models and a (boundedly) rational route away from randomness," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    10. Hatcher, Michael & Hellmann, Tim, 2025. "Networks, beliefs, and asset prices," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    11. Kun Xing & Honggang Li, 2024. "Market Ecology: Trading Strategies and Market Volatility," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 64(6), pages 3333-3351, December.
    12. Adam Majewski & Stefano Ciliberti & Jean-Philippe Bouchaud, 2018. "Co-existence of Trend and Value in Financial Markets: Estimating an Extended Chiarella Model," Papers 1807.11751, arXiv.org.
    13. Galanis, Giorgos & Kollias, Iraklis & Leventidis, Ioanis & Lustenhouwer, Joep, 2022. "Generalizing Heuristic Switching Models," Working Papers 0715, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    14. Ozdamar, Melisa & Sensoy, Ahmet & Akdeniz, Levent, 2022. "Retail vs institutional investor attention in the cryptocurrency market," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    15. Di Francesco, Tommaso & Hommes, Cars, 2025. "Sentiment-driven speculation in financial markets with heterogeneous beliefs: A machine learning approach," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    16. David Hirshleife, 2015. "Behavioral Finance," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 7(1), pages 133-159, December.
    17. Schmitt, Noemi, 2018. "Heterogeneous expectations and asset price dynamics," BERG Working Paper Series 134, Bamberg University, Bamberg Economic Research Group.
    18. Biondo, Alessio Emanuele, 2018. "Learning to forecast, risk aversion, and microstructural aspects of financial stability," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy, vol. 12, pages 1-21.
    19. Xue-Zhong He, 2003. "Asset Pricing, Volatility and Market Behaviour: A Market Fraction Approach," Research Paper Series 95, Quantitative Finance Research Centre, University of Technology, Sydney.
    20. Alessio Emanuele Biondo, 2018. "Order book microstructure and policies for financial stability," Studies in Economics and Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(1), pages 196-218, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D53 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Financial Markets
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • D85 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Network Formation
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G41 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making in Financial Markets

    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:jeborg:v:238:y:2025:i:c:s0167268125003300. 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/jebo .

    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.