Can public information complement private information acquisition? What are the implicationsfor asset market performance? Our paper investigates by constructing a simple bond market in thelaboratory. Human investors observe public information on default probability and then, beforetrading,...

<Para ID="Par1">We consider a model in which each agent in a population chooses one of two options. Each agent does not know what the available options are and can choose an option only after observing another agent who has already chosen that option. In addition, the agents’ preferences over the two options...</para>