Expert imitation in P2P markets

摘要

This paper investigates expert bidding imitation in peer-to-peer lending platforms. We employ data fromRenrendai.com, which contains information of about 170,000 investors who placed almost four million bids on 111,234 loan listings from 2010 to 2018. The experts are defined as investors who either have more central roles or who spend more time or money on the network. We find that an average investor mimics the bids of expert lenders. Inactive lenders learn top investors' lending behaviour through observational learning and then, follow their actions, although they do not know the experts' identity. Finally, we show that experts rarely imitate other experts, yet they exhibit herding behaviour.