Accounting Lighthouse in Share Market Dynamics : A Theoretical Model of Share Price Formation with Dual Informational Structure

The discovery and processing of firm-specific information is expected to play a role in the making of individual expectations and related financial decisions. The information set available to share market investors is then jointly composed by market and firm-specific (non-market) information. From one side, the accounting system provides collective signals of firm-specific information. From another side, the price system provides collective signals of market information. Both institutional devices are significant for the formation of aggregate share market prices over time. In particular, the accounting system complements the price system by constituting a lighthouse in the amazing dynamics of the share market through hazard, learning and interaction between heterogeneous investors. This framework of analysis applies here to provide a theoretical model of share price formation under such dual informational (and institutional) structure. Implications and recommendations are derived for the concept and occurrence of speculative bubbles, the cyclical effects of accounting information on share market evolution, and the "value relevance" of accounting information and its role in the formation of market share prices over time