We demonstrate the role of three empirical properties of cross-sectional distributions of analysts' forecast errors in generating evidence pertinent to three important and heretofore separately analyzed phenomena studied in the analyst earnings forecast literature: purported bias (intentional or...

Corporate spin-offs create new firms with characteristics markedly different from the original firm. Consequently, institutional investors pre-committed to certain investment styles and/or subject to fiduciary restrictions have incentives to rebalance their portfolios at the time of the...

Corporate spin-offs create new firms with characteristics markedly different from the original firm. Consequently, institutional investors pre-committed to certain investment styles and/or subject to fiduciary restrictions have incentives to rebalance their portfolios at the time of the...

We study the use of properties of analysts' forecasts as surrogates for unobservable constructs in empirical research. We provide an analytical framework with which to examine past empirical practice and contemplate future empirical research. Our model is used to interpret existing empirical...

Prominent properties of distributions of differences in earnings reported by forecast data providers (FDPs), i.e., I/B/E/S, Zacks, and First Call, and Compustat drive statistical inferences drawn in extant research concerning the relative information content and value relevance of alternative...

We investigate whether the direction and magnitude of earnings management by a firm is affected by analysts' current perception of its equity investment potential (i.e., its perceived ability to generate positive abnormal returns). We argue that firms whose investment potential is perceived to...

In this paper we present evidence that a firm's stock price sensitivity to earnings news, as measured by outstanding stock recommendation, affects its incentives to manage earnings and, in turn, affects analysts' ex post forecast errors. In particular, we find a tendency for firms rated a Sell...