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Endogenous Public Information and Welfare in Market Games

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  • Xavier Vives

Abstract

This article performs a welfare analysis of markets with private information in which agents condition on prices in the rational expectations tradition. Price-contingent strategies introduce two externalities in the use of private information: a pecuniary externality and a learning externality. The pecuniary externality induces agents to put too much weight on private information and in the standard case, when the allocation role of the price prevails over its informational role, overwhelms the learning externality which impinges in the opposite way. The price may be very informative but at the cost of an excessive dispersion of the actions of agents. The welfare loss at the market solution may be increasing in the precision of private information. The analysis provides insights into optimal business cycle policy and a rationale for a Tobin-like tax for financial transactions.

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  • Xavier Vives, 2017. "Endogenous Public Information and Welfare in Market Games," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 84(2), pages 935-963.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:restud:v:84:y:2017:i:2:p:935-963.
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    Cited by:

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    9. Angeletos, G.-M. & Lian, C., 2016. "Incomplete Information in Macroeconomics," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1065-1240, Elsevier.
    10. Manzano, Carolina & Vives, Xavier, 2021. "Market power and welfare in asymmetric divisible good auctions," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 16(3), July.
    11. Ruiz-Buforn, Alba & Alfarano, Simone & Morone, Andrea, 2019. "Welfare effects of public information in a laboratory financial market," MPRA Paper 95424, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Eduardo Dávila & Cecilia Parlatore, 2019. "Volatility and Informativeness," NBER Working Papers 25433, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Benjamin M. Hébert & Jennifer La'O, 2020. "Information Acquisition, Efficiency, and Non-Fundamental Volatility," NBER Working Papers 26771, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Eduardo Dávila & Cecilia Parlatore, 2021. "Trading Costs and Informational Efficiency," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 76(3), pages 1471-1539, June.
    15. Kohlhas, Alexandre N., 2020. "An informational rationale for action over disclosure," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
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    18. Gaetano Gaballo, 2018. "Price Dispersion, Private Uncertainty, and Endogenous Nominal Rigidities," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 85(2), pages 1070-1110.
    19. Anna Bayona, 2018. "The social value of information with an endogenous public signal," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 66(4), pages 1059-1087, December.
    20. Eduardo Davila, 2014. "Optimal Financial Transaction Taxes," 2014 Meeting Papers 114, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    21. Khan, M. Ali & Qiao, Lei & Rath, Kali P. & Sun, Yeneng, 2020. "Modeling large societies: Why countable additivity is necessary," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
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    24. Jihad C. Elnaboulsi & Wassim Daher & Yigit Saglam, 2020. "Environmental Taxation, Information Precision, and Information Sharing," Working Papers 2020-04, CRESE.
    25. Heumann, Tibor, 2021. "Efficiency in trading markets with multi-dimensional signals," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Learning externality; Asymmetric information; Pecuniary externality; Team solution; Rational expectations; Cursed equilibrium; Tobin tax; Business cycle policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies

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