IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2604.11100.html

Mechanism Design for Investment Regulation under Herding

Author

Listed:
  • Huisheng Wang
  • H. Vicky Zhao

Abstract

Herding, where investors imitate others' decisions rather than relying on their own analysis, is a prevalent phenomenon in financial markets. Excessive herding distorts rational decisions, amplifies volatility, and can be exploited by manipulators to harm the market. Traditional regulatory tools, such as information disclosure and transaction restrictions, are often imprecise and lack theoretical guarantees for effectiveness. This calls for a quantitative approach to regulating herding. We propose a regulator-leader-follower trilateral game framework based on optimal control theory to study the complex dynamics among them. The leader makes rational decisions, the follower maximizes utility while aligning with the leader's decisions, whereas the regulator designs a mechanism to maximize social welfare and minimize regulatory cost. We derive the follower's decisions and the regulator's mechanisms, theoretically analyze the impact of regulation on decisions, and investigate effective mechanisms to improve social welfare.

Suggested Citation

  • Huisheng Wang & H. Vicky Zhao, 2026. "Mechanism Design for Investment Regulation under Herding," Papers 2604.11100, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2604.11100
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2604.11100
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dia, Enzo & VanHoose, David, 2018. "Fixed costs and capital regulation: Impacts on the structure of banking markets and aggregate loan quality," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 53-65.
    2. Alvin E. Roth, 1977. "Individual Rationality and Nash's Solution to the Bargaining Problem," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 2(1), pages 64-65, February.
    3. Mavruk, Taylan, 2022. "Analysis of herding behavior in individual investor portfolios using machine learning algorithms," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    4. Armour, John & Awrey, Dan & Davies, Paul & Enriques, Luca & Gordon, Jeffrey N. & Mayer, Colin & Payne, Jennifer, 2016. "Principles of Financial Regulation," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198786474.
    5. Park, Seongkyu “Gilbert” & Suen, Wing & Wan, Kam-Ming, 2022. "Call auction design and closing price manipulation: Evidence from the Hong Kong stock exchange," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    6. Roger B. Myerson, 1981. "Optimal Auction Design," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 6(1), pages 58-73, February.
    7. Bikhchandani, Sushil & Hirshleifer, David & Welch, Ivo, 1992. "A Theory of Fads, Fashion, Custom, and Cultural Change in Informational Cascades," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(5), pages 992-1026, October.
    8. Myerson, Roger B, 1979. "Incentive Compatibility and the Bargaining Problem," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(1), pages 61-73, January.
    9. Huisheng Wang & H. Vicky Zhao, 2024. "Optimal Investment with Herd Behaviour Using Rational Decision Decomposition," Papers 2401.07183, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2024.
    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. Arve, Malin & Zwart, Gijsbert, 2023. "Optimal procurement and investment in new technologies under uncertainty," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    2. Strausz, Roland, 2006. "Deterministic versus stochastic mechanisms in principal-agent models," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 128(1), pages 306-314, May.
    3. Qiushi Han & David Simchi-Levi & Renfei Tan & Zishuo Zhao, 2025. "Multi-agent Adaptive Mechanism Design," Papers 2512.21794, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2026.
    4. Lewis, Tracy R. & Sappington, David E. M., 1995. "Using markets to allocate pollution permits and other scarce resource rights under limited information," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(3), pages 431-455, July.
    5. Corchón, Luis C., 2008. "The theory of implementation : what did we learn?," UC3M Working papers. Economics we081207, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía.
    6. Babaioff, Moshe & Blumrosen, Liad & Roth, Aaron, 2015. "Auctions with online supply," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 227-246.
    7. Branco, Fernando, 2002. "Procurement favouritism and technology adoption," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 73-91, January.
    8. Jiadong Gu, 2024. "Data Trade and Consumer Privacy," Papers 2406.12457, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2026.
    9. Mougeot Michel & Schwartz Sonia, 2018. "A Discriminatory Mechanism to Reduce Urban Congestion," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 19(2), pages 190-208, May.
    10. Owen Q. Wu & Volodymyr Babich, 2012. "Unit-Contingent Power Purchase Agreement and Asymmetric Information About Plant Outage," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 14(2), pages 245-261, April.
    11. Pathikrit Basu, 2023. "Optimal mechanism design with approximate incentive compatibility and many players," The Journal of Mechanism and Institution Design, Society for the Promotion of Mechanism and Institution Design, University of York, vol. 8(1), pages 97-106, December.
    12. Soham R. Phade & Venkat Anantharam, 2021. "Mechanism Design for Cumulative Prospect Theoretic Agents: A General Framework and the Revelation Principle," Papers 2101.08722, arXiv.org.
    13. Ronghuo Zheng & Tinglong Dai & Katia Sycara & Nilanjan Chakraborty, 2016. "Automated Multilateral Negotiation on Multiple Issues with Private Information," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 28(4), pages 612-628, November.
    14. Claude d'Aspremont & Jacques Crémer & Louis-André Gérard-Varet, 2003. "Correlation, independence, and Bayesian incentives," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 21(2), pages 281-310, October.
    15. Carrasco, Vinicius & Fuchs, William & Fukuda, Satoshi, 2019. "From equals to despots: The dynamics of repeated decision making in partnerships with private information," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 402-432.
    16. Jozsef Molnar & Gabor Virag, 2001. "Optimal auctions with externalities and signaling," KRTK-KTI WORKING PAPERS 0112, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    17. Juan Feng, 2008. "—Optimal Mechanism for Selling a Set of Commonly Ranked Objects," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(3), pages 501-512, 05-06.
    18. Daske, Thomas, 2019. "Efficient Incentives in Social Networks: "Gamification" and the Coase Theorem," EconStor Preprints 193148, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    19. Shi, Guiqiang & Shen, Dehua & Zhu, Zhaobo, 2024. "Herding towards carbon neutrality: The role of investor attention," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    20. Shu, Hang & Durango-Cohen, Pablo L., 2021. "On the design of optimal auctions for road concessions: Firm selection, government payments, toll and capacity schedules with imperfect information," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 210-236.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:arx:papers:2604.11100. 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: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    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.