Are Longer Cascades More Stable?

25 Pages Posted: 21 Sep 2004

See all articles by Dorothea Kübler

Dorothea Kübler

Social Science Research Center (WZB); Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin) - Faculty of Economics and Management

Georg Weizsacker

Humboldt University Berlin; DIW Berlin

Date Written: September 19, 2004

Abstract

Yes, they are. We consider data from experimental cascade games that were run in different laboratories, and find uniformly that subjects are more willing to follow the crowd, the bigger the crowd is - although the decision makers who are added to the crowd should in theory simply follow suit and hence reveal no information. This correlation of length and strength of cascades appears consistently across games with different parameters and different choice sets for the subjects. It is also observed in games where it runs counter to the theoretical prediction, so behavior moves away from equilibrium play over the stages of the games.

Keywords: Herding, social learning, experimental economics

JEL Classification: C72, C92, D82

Suggested Citation

Kübler, Dorothea F. and Weizsacker, Georg, Are Longer Cascades More Stable? (September 19, 2004). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=593424 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.593424

Dorothea F. Kübler

Social Science Research Center (WZB) ( email )

Reichpietschufer 50
D-10785 Berlin, 10785
Germany
40 30 25491440 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.wzb.eu/mp/vam/people/dorothea_kuebler.de.htm

Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin) - Faculty of Economics and Management ( email )

D-10623 Berlin
Germany
+49 30 31425263 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.wiwi-experimente.tu-berlin.de/

Georg Weizsacker (Contact Author)

Humboldt University Berlin ( email )

Spandauer Str. 1
Berlin, D-10099
Germany

DIW Berlin

Mohrenstr. 58
Berlin
Germany