IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/usi/labsit/006.html

The power of words in financial markets: soft versus hard communication,a strategy method experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Corgnet Bruce

  • Angela Sutan

  • Arvin Aashta

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of non-informative communications on asset prices. An experimental approach allows us to control for the release of non-relevant messages. We introduce the release of messages in standard experimental asset markets with bubbles (Smith, Suchanek and Williams 1988) through a strategy method experiment. We conjecture that a priori uninformative messages can significantly impact the level of asset prices. Uninformative communications may be used by boundedly rational subjects to compute the fundamental value of the asset. In addition, rational agents may anticipate such an effect and adapt their strategy to the messages received. We asked 182 subjects to construct strategies about their action in a standard experimental asset market environment. Our analysis sheds light on the possibility of manipulation and stabilization of financial markets by influential agents such as financial “gurus” or central bankers.

Suggested Citation

  • Corgnet Bruce & Angela Sutan & Arvin Aashta, 2006. "The power of words in financial markets: soft versus hard communication,a strategy method experiment," Labsi Experimental Economics Laboratory University of Siena 006, University of Siena.
    • Handle: RePEc:usi:labsit:006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://repec.deps.unisi.it/labsi/labsi_paper/labsi6.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeremy C. Stein, 2000. "Information Production and Capital Allocation: Decentralized vs. Hierarchical Firms," NBER Working Papers 7705, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Martin Dufwenberg & Tobias Lindqvist & Evan Moore, 2005. "Bubbles and Experience: An Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(5), pages 1731-1737, December.
    3. Lei, Vivian & Noussair, Charles N & Plott, Charles R, 2001. "Nonspeculative Bubbles in Experimental Asset Markets: Lack of Common Knowledge of Rationality vs. Actual Irrationality," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(4), pages 831-859, July.
    4. Sonnemans, Joep & Hommes, Cars & Tuinstra, Jan & van de Velden, Henk, 2004. "The instability of a heterogeneous cobweb economy: a strategy experiment on expectation formation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 54(4), pages 453-481, August.
    5. Jeremy C. Stein, 2002. "Information Production and Capital Allocation: Decentralized versus Hierarchical Firms," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(5), pages 1891-1921, October.
    6. David Porter & Vernon Smith, 1994. "Stock market bubbles in the laboratory," Applied Mathematical Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(2), pages 111-128.
    7. Sendhil Mullainathan, 2002. "A Memory-Based Model of Bounded Rationality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(3), pages 735-774.
    8. Smith, Vernon L & Suchanek, Gerry L & Williams, Arlington W, 1988. "Bubbles, Crashes, and Endogenous Expectations in Experimental Spot Asset Markets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(5), pages 1119-1151, September.
    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. Brice Corgnet & Angela Sutan, 2007. "Communications in Financial Markets: a Strategy method Experiment," Faculty Working Papers 06/07, School of Economics and Business Administration, University of Navarra.
    2. Gunduz Caginalp & Vladimira Ilieva, 2006. "The dynamics of trader motivations in asset bubbles," Labsi Experimental Economics Laboratory University of Siena 008, University of Siena.
    3. Eldad Yechiam & Amitay Kauffmann & Nathaniel J S Ashby & Gal Zahavi, 2017. "On the relation between economic bubbles and effort gaps between sellers and buyers: An experimental study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(12), pages 1-15, December.
    4. Lugovskyy, Volodymyr & Puzzello, Daniela & Tucker, Steven & Williams, Arlington, 2014. "Asset-holdings caps and bubbles in experimental asset markets," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 107(PB), pages 781-797.
    5. Corgnet, Brice & Hernán, Roberto & Kujal, Praveen & Porter, David, 2013. "The effect of earned vs. house money on price bubble formation in experimental asset markets," UC3M Working papers. Economics we1304, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía.
    6. Ernst Fehr & Jean-Robert Tyran, 2005. "Individual Irrationality and Aggregate Outcomes," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(4), pages 43-66, Fall.
    7. Brice Corgnet & Roberto Hernán-González & Praveen Kujal & David Porter, 2015. "The Effect of Earned Versus House Money on Price Bubble Formation in Experimental Asset Markets," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 19(4), pages 1455-1488.
    8. Caginalp, G. & Ilieva, V., 2008. "The dynamics of trader motivations in asset bubbles," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 66(3-4), pages 641-656, June.
    9. Corgnet, Brice & Hernán-González, Roberto & Kujal, Praveen, 2020. "On booms that never bust: Ambiguity in experimental asset markets with bubbles," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    10. Volodymyr Lugovskyy & Daniela Puzzello & Steven Tucker, 2009. "An Experimental Study of Bubble Formation in Asset Markets Using the Tâtonnement Pricing Mechanism," Working Papers in Economics 09/19, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
    11. Ma, Chao, 2020. "Momentum and Reversion to Fundamentals: Are They Captured by Subjective Expectations of House Prices?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    12. Makarewicz, Tomasz, 2021. "Traders, forecasters and financial instability: A model of individual learning of anchor-and-adjustment heuristics," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 626-673.
    13. Halim, Edward & Riyanto, Yohanes Eko & Roy, Nilanjan, 2016. "Price Dynamics and Consumption Smoothing in Experimental Asset Markets," MPRA Paper 71631, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Timothy N. Cason & Anya Samek, 2015. "Learning through passive participation in asset market bubbles," Journal of the Economic Science Association, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 1(2), pages 170-181, December.
    15. Oechssler, Jörg & Schmidt, Carsten & Schnedler, Wendelin, 2007. "Asset bubbles without dividends : an experiment," Papers 07-01, Sonderforschungsbreich 504.
    16. Corgnet, Brice & Kujal, Praveen & Porter, David, 2010. "The effect of reliability, content and timing of public announcements on asset trading behavior," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 254-266, November.
    17. Te Bao & Cars Hommes & Tomasz Makarewicz, 2017. "Bubble Formation and (In)Efficient Markets in Learning‐to‐forecast and optimise Experiments," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(605), pages 581-609, October.
    18. Tucker, Steven & Xu, Yilong, 2024. "Nonspeculative bubbles revisited," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    19. Hong, Jieying & Moinas, Sophie & Pouget, Sébastien, 2021. "Learning in speculative bubbles: Theory and experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 1-26.
    20. Taylor Jaworski & Erik O. Kimbrough, 2016. "Bubbles, Crashes, And Endogenous Uncertainty In Linked Asset And Product Markets," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 57(1), pages 155-176, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C90 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - General

    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:usi:labsit:006. 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: Alessandro Innocenti (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lasieit.html .

    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.