Biased forecasts or biased earnings? - The role of reported earnings in explaining apparent bias and over/underreaction in analysts' earnings forecasts

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Abarbanell, J; Lehavy, R
• 署名单位: University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; University of North Carolina; University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING & ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0165-4101
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jacceco.2003.11.001
• 发表日期: 2003
• 关键词: information; management; underreaction; profits; share; tests

摘要

The extensive literature that investigates whether analysts' earnings forecasts are biased and/or inefficient has produced conflicting evidence and no definitive answers to either question. This paper shows how two relatively small but statistically influential asymmetries in the tail and the middle of distributions of analysts' forecast errors can exaggerate or obscure evidence consistent with analyst bias and inefficiency, leading to inconsistent inferences. We identify an empirical link between firms' recognition of unexpected accruals and the presence of the two asymmetries in distributions of forecast errors that suggests that firm reporting choices play an important role in determining analysts' forecast errors. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.