Paving the Road to the Buy-Side

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Zhang, Biwen
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Berkeley
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING RESEARCH
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0021-8456
• DOI: 10.1111/1475-679X.70004
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: CONFLICTS-OF-INTEREST; institutional investors; analysts; reputation; MARKET

摘要

Sell-side analysts commonly transition to buy-side money managers. I examine whether and how these career transitions shape sell-side analysts' behavior, relying on the granular career information of 6,310 analysts in the United States. I identify analysts who transition from the sell-side to the buy-side and find that these analysts issue inflated recommendations on stocks of interest to their future buy-side employers. This favoritism is (1) present only during the year preceding their transition, (2) more pronounced among stocks where a single analyst is more influential in moving the stock price; and (3) present only among transitions likely to be strategically planned. Importantly, stocks receiving inflated recommendations experience a significant price decline following the departure of transitioning analysts from the sell-side. Overall, these findings suggest that analyst career transitions are an important source of conflicts of interest.