This paper studies how legal sanctions and enforcement affect brokers' conflicts of interest emanating from investment banking activities. We exploit the recent adoption of the Market Abuse Directive (MAD) across European countries and use the variation in legal sanctions and enforcement that...

In the recent years, the US and the EC have witnessed the adoption of new regulations focused on financial analysts. This study investigates whether the European regulations, known as the Market Abuse Directive (MAD) changed the distribution of recommendations and increased their credibility...