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...

Recent work in management accounting offers several novel insights into firms' cost behavior. This study explores whether financial analysts appropriately incorporate information on two types of cost behavior in predicting earnings - cost variability and cost stickiness. Since analysts'...

Consistent with the uncertainty of research and development's future benefits, prior accounting studies hypothesize and find a positive relation between research and development (Ramp;D) and the variability of future earnings. However, prior research has assumed constant marginal productivity of...