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Herding and Contrarian Behavior in Financial Markets: An Experimental Analysis

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  • Park, A.
  • Sgroi, D.

Abstract

We are the first paper to analyze and confirm the existence and extent of rational informational herding and rational informational contrarianism in a financial market experiment, and to compare and contrast these with the equivalent irrational phenomena. In our study, subjects generally behave according to benchmark rationality. Traders who should herd or be contrarian in theory are the significant source of both within the data. Correcting for subjects who chose not to trade at least once (an irrational action in itself), increases our ability to predict herding or contrarian behavior considerabl.

Suggested Citation

  • Park, A. & Sgroi, D., 2009. "Herding and Contrarian Behavior in Financial Markets: An Experimental Analysis," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0938, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    • Handle: RePEc:cam:camdae:0938
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    Cited by:

    1. Park, Andreas & Sgroi, Daniel, 2008. "When Herding and Contrarianism Foster Market Efficiency : A Financial Trading Experiment," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 854, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    2. Andreas Roider & Andrea Voskort, 2016. "Reputational Herding in Financial Markets: A Laboratory Experiment," Journal of Behavioral Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 244-266, July.
    3. Baddeley, M. & Burke, C. & Schultz, W. & Tobler, P., 2012. "Herding in Financial Behaviour: A Behavioural and Neuroeconomic Analysis of Individual Differences," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1225, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    4. Junkai Wang & Robert Hudson, 2024. "Better ways to test for herding," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 790-818, January.
    5. Joohyun Kim & Ohsung Kwon & Duk Hee Lee, 2019. "Observing Cascade Behavior Depending on the Network Topology and Transaction Costs," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 53(1), pages 207-225, January.
    6. Park, Andreas & Sgroi, Daniel, 2012. "Herding, contrarianism and delay in financial market trading," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(6), pages 1020-1037.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Herding; Contrarianism; Informational Efficiency; Experiments;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading

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