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Review of Financial Studies Vol. 33 No. 8 2020

Stock Market Rumors and Credibility

Daniel Schmidt

Abstract

Stock prices occasionally move in response to unverified rumors. I propose a cheap talk model in which a rumormonger’s incentives to tell the truth depend on the interaction between her investment horizon and the information acquisition decisions of message-receiving investors. The model’s key prediction is that short investment horizons can facilitate credible information sharing between investors, thereby accelerating the information capitalization into market prices. Analyzing a data set of takeover rumors covered by U.S. newspapers, I find suggestive evidence in support of this prediction.

DOI
10.1093/rfs/hhz120
Volume
33
Issue
8
Pages
3804-3853
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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