Using a unique database of monthly advertising spending in media outlets, we examine whether managers engage in real earnings management to meet quarterly financial reporting benchmarks. We extend prior literature by: (1) separately analyzing advertising activities, allowing us to explore novel...

Using a unique database of monthly advertising spending in media outlets, we examine whether managers engage in real earnings management to meet quarterly financial reporting benchmarks. We extend prior literature by: (1) separately analyzing advertising activities, allowing us to explore novel...

We examine whether the properties of earnings forecasts – bias and dispersion are different across periods when macroeconomic forecasts are optimistic than non-optimistic, and whether this difference in analyst forecast optimism is stronger during recessionary periods. We find that the...