Analyst Coverage Networks and Corporate Financial Policies

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Gomes, Armando; Gopalan, Radhakrishnan; Leary, Mark T.; Marcet, Francisco
• 署名单位: Washington University (WUSTL); National Bureau of Economic Research; Universidad de Chile
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2023.4891
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 5016-5039
• 关键词: analyst network; friends of friends; peer effects; equity shock; capital structure

摘要

We use the setting of analyst coverage networks to shed light on the nature of peer effects in financial policies. First, we use the friends-of-friends approach and exploit the fact that analyst coverage networks partially overlap to identify endogenous peer effects, in which firms respond directly to the capital structure choices of their peers, separately from contextual effects, in which they respond to their peers' characteristics. We further show evidence that analysts facilitate these peer effects through their role as informational intermediaries. Analyst network peer effects are distinct from industry peer effects and are more pronounced among peers connected by analysts that are more experienced and from more influential brokerage houses. Finally, the analyst peer effects become weaker after exogenous reductions in common coverage as a consequence of brokerage closures.