Most real world situations that are susceptible to herding are also characterized by direct payoff externalities. Yet, the bulk of the theoretical and experimental literature on herding has focused on pure informational externalities. In this paper we experi- mentally investigate the effects of...

Most real world situations that are susceptible to herding are also characterized by direct payoff externalities. Yet, the bulk of the theoretical and experimental literature on herding has focused on pure informational externalities. In this paper we experi- mentally investigate the effects of...

Using a model without conflicts of interest and with identical information available to equity analysts, we show that bias and herding in their stock recommendations occur due to incentives provided by relative performance evaluation and top awards. Furthermore, these incentives also lead to...