Speculative Attack and Informational Structure: an Experimental Study

This paper addresses the question of whether public information destabilises the economy in the context of signals of different nature. We present an experimental evaluation of the speculative attack game of Morris and Shin (1998). Our objective is twofold: to evaluate whether public information destabilises the economy within a context of signals of different nature and to enlarge upon the results of Heinemann, Nagel and Ockenfels (2004) (HNO). Our evidence suggests that in sessions with both private and common signals, the fact that the common signal plays a focal role enhances the central bank's welfare: it reduces the probability of crisis and increases its predictability. Therefore, we raise doubts about the policy implications of HNO's findings. The new policy lesson is that the central bank has more control over the beliefs of traders if it discloses one clear signal when agents also get private information from other sources.speculative attacks; private information; public information

Speculative Attack and Informational Structure: An Experimental Study

This paper addresses the question whether public information destabilises the economy in the context of signals of different nature. We present an experiment on the speculative attack game of Morris and Shin (1998). Our objective is double: (i) evaluating whether public information destabilises the economy in a context of signals of different nature; and (ii) enlarging the results of Heinemann, Nagel and Ockenfels (2002). Our evidence suggests that in sessions with both private and common signals, the fact that the public signal plays a focal role enhances the central bank's welfare: it reduces the probability of crisis and increases its predictability. In terms of economic policy, the central bank has more control on the beliefs of traders if it discloses one clear signal when agents also get private information from other sources.private information; public information; speculative attack

Can Opacity of a Credible Central Bank Explain Excessive Inflation?

Excessive inflation is usually attributed to the lack of central bank’s credibility. In this context, most of the literature considers transparency a means to establish central bank’s credibility. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, it shows that, even in the absence of inflationary bias, a credible central bank may find it optimal to implement an accommodating monetary policy in response to cost-push shocks whenever the uncertainty surrounding its monetary instrument is high. Indeed, the degree of central bank’s transparency influences the effectiveness of its policy to stabilize inflation in terms of output gap, and thereby whether it will implement an expansionary or contractionary policy in response to cost-push shocks. Second, it stresses that transparency is not just a means to achieve credibility but is essential per se for the optimality of monetary policy of a fully credible central bank

Speculative Attacks with Multiple Sources of Public Information

We propose a speculative attack model in which agents receive multiple public signals. It is characterised by its focus on an informational structure which sets free from the strict separation between public information and private information. Diverse pieces of public information can be taken into account differently by players and are likely to lead to different appreciations ex post. This process defines players’ private value. The main result is to show that equilibrium uniqueness depends on two conditions: (i) signals are sufficiently dispersed (ii) private beliefs about the relative precision of these signals sufficiently differ. We derive economic policy implications of such a result

Publicité limitée de l'information et sur-réaction aux annonces lors des épisodes spéculatifs

Le modèle de Morris et Shin [2002] montre que des annonces publiques imprécises peuvent coordonner les spéculateurs loin de la solution fondamentale par un phénomène de sur-réaction aux annonces. Le fort potentiel focal exercé par la connaissance commune est dommageable au bien-être lorsqu'il induit de la sur-réaction à un signal public imprécis. Pourtant, les expériences de laboratoire montrent que les agents sur-réagissent aux annonces, mais pas aussi fortement que ce que prédisent les modèles théoriques existants, fondés sur de l'information publique qui génère de la connaissance commune. Ce papier introduit la notion de publicité limitée de l'information qui semble mieux à même de rendre compte du degré réel de sur-réaction des agents.publicité limitée de l'information ; sur-réaction ; spéculation

Measuring Agents' Reaction to Private and Public Information in Games with Strategic Complementarities

In games with strategic complementarities, public information about the state of the world has a larger impact on equilibrium actions than private information of the same precision, because the former is more informative about the likely behavior of others. This may lead to welfare-reducing ‘overreactions’ to public signals. We present an experiment based on a game of Morris and Shin (2002), in which agents’ optimal actions are a weighted average of the fundamental state and their expectations of other agents’ actions. We measure the responses to public and private signals and find that, on average, subjects put a larger weight on the public signal. However, the weight is smaller than in equilibrium and closer to level-2 reasoning. Stated second order beliefs indicate that subjects underestimate the information contained in public signals about other players’ beliefs, but this can account only for a part of the observed deviation of behavior from equilibrium. In the extreme case of a pure coordination game, subjects still use their private signals, preventing full coordination. Reconsidering the welfare effects of public and private information theoretically, we find for level-2 reasoning that increasing precision of public signals always raises expected welfare, while increasing precision of private signals may reduce expected welfare if coordination is socially desirable.coordination games, strategic uncertainty, private information, public information, higher-order beliefs, levels of reasoning

Optimal Degree of Public Information Dissemination

Financial markets and macroeconomic environments are often characterized by positive externalities. In these environments, transparency may reduce expected welfare from an ex-ante point of view: public announcements serve as a focal point for higher-order beliefs and affect agents’ behaviour more than justified by their informational contents. Some scholars conclude that it might be better to reduce the precision of public signals or entirely withhold information. This paper shows that public information should always be provided with maximum precision, but under certain conditions not to all agents. Restricting the degree of publicity is a better-suited instrument for preventing the negative welfare effects of public announcements than restrictions on their precision are.Transparency; public information; private information; coordination; strategic complementarity

Optimal Degree of Public Information Dissemination

Financial markets and macroeconomic environments are often characterized by positive externalities. In these environments, transparency may reduce expected welfare from an ex-ante point of view: public announcements serve as a focal point for higher-order beliefs and affect agents’ behaviour more than justified by their informational contents. Some scholars conclude that it might be better to reduce the precision of public signals or entirely withhold information. This paper shows that public information should always be provided with maximum precision, but under certain conditions not to all agents. Restricting the degree of publicity is a better-suited instrument for preventing the negative welfare effects of public announcements than restrictions on their precision are

The signaling role of policy action.

This paper analyzes the conduct of the optimal monetary policy with imperfect information on the shocks hitting the economy where firms’ prices are strategic complements. Monetary policy entails a dual stabilizing role, as a policy response that influences directly the economy and as a vehicle for information that shapes firms’ beliefs. In the case where more information is welfare detrimental, the central bank faces a dilemma, for its monetary instrument aimed at stabilizing the economy may harmfully shape firms’ beliefs. Recognizing the signaling role of its instrument, the central bank finds it optimal to distort its policy response in order to mitigate the detrimental information that it may convey.differential information, monetary policy, transparency.

Optimal Degree of Public Information Dissemination

In currency exchange markets, there is a conflict between individual decisions and the socially optimal solution. Whereas agents have a coordination motive to take the same position, at the social level effective market coordination per se is not socially valuable, and the central bank aims at driving agents’ actions as close as possible to the economic fundamental state. Some studies argue that it might be better to withhold public information because its potential to serve as a focal point induces agents to exaggerate the importance of public announcements. This paper shows that public information should always be provided with maximum precision, but under certain condition not to all agents. Restrictions on the degree of publicity are a better instrument with which to prevent the negative welfare effects of public announcements than restrictions on their precision are. The optimal degree of publicity is always positive.transparency, public information, private information, common p-beliefs, coordination, strategic complementarity