), "Rational Herding in Microloan Markets," Management Science, Vol. 58, No. 5, May, pp. 892-912.Microloan markets allow individual … borrower listings on Prosper.com, the largest microloan market in the United States. We find evidence of rational herding among … payoff externalities. Moreover, instead of passively mimicking their peers (irrational herding), lenders engage in active …

though they can discuss the outcomes of their choices. Models of informational herding or cascades have examined how rational … the cascades/herding literature. In a setting which adds 'conversational' learning about both the payoff outcomes of … predecessors to a basic cascades model, we describe conditions under which (1) cascades/herding occurs with probability one; (2 …

signals. Bunching is different from herding; it occurs in the first period and recursively until herding takes place or the … symmetric mixed strategy equilibrium. When players become patient enough, herding of investment disappears in the most efficient …

compare the predictions of the model to several alternative models of irrational herding and no herding, and test those … most recent pledge. These results are consistent with rational information aggregation, and inconsistent with naive herding …

derive the optimal launch sequence. The decision maker's dynamic equilibrium strategy endogenizes informational herding …