Listening in on investors? thoughts and conversations

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chen, Hailiang; Hwang, Byoung-Hyoun
• 署名单位: University of Hong Kong; Nanyang Technological University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-405X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2021.09.004
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 426-444
• 关键词: social interactions; Social transmission bias; asset prices

摘要

A large literature in neuroscience and social psychology shows that humans are wired to be meticulous about how they are perceived by others. In this paper, we propose that impression management considerations can also end up guiding the content that investors transmit via word of mouth and inadvertently lead to the propagation of noise. We analyze server log data from one of the largest investment-related websites in the United States. Consistent with our proposition, we find that investors more frequently share articles that are more suitable for impression management despite such articles less accurately predict-ing returns. Additional analyses suggest that high levels of sharing can lead to overpricing. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.