IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/finmgt/v43y2014i2p327-353.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are Analysts’ Recommendations for Other Investment Banks Biased?

Author

Listed:
  • Erik Devos

Abstract

type="main"> This paper provides evidence of a “Potential conflict of interest by equity analysts” who issue recommendations for investment banks that are related to their own bank through syndication. Analysts issue significantly more optimistic recommendations for investment banks with which their bank is syndicated. Recommending banks upgrade their recommendations just before a relation is initiated, suggesting that they use analyst optimism as a means of currying favor with the syndicate lead in hopes of being invited to join. It also appears that as part of a quid pro quo of sorts, relatively optimistic recommendations are rewarded with more syndicate appointments in the year after the recommendations.

Suggested Citation

  • Erik Devos, 2014. "Are Analysts’ Recommendations for Other Investment Banks Biased?," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 43(2), pages 327-353, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:finmgt:v:43:y:2014:i:2:p:327-353
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/fima.12031
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lin, Hsiou-wei & McNichols, Maureen F., 1998. "Underwriting relationships, analysts' earnings forecasts and investment recommendations," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 101-127, February.
    2. Kolasinski, Adam C. & Kothari, S. P., 2008. "Investment Banking and Analyst Objectivity: Evidence from Analysts Affiliated with Mergers and Acquisitions Advisors," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(4), pages 817-842, December.
    3. Chitru S. Fernando & Vladimir A. Gatchev & Paul A. Spindt, 2005. "Wanna Dance? How Firms and Underwriters Choose Each Other," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(5), pages 2437-2469, October.
    4. Anup Agrawal & Mark A. Chen, 2008. "Do Analyst Conflicts Matter? Evidence from Stock Recommendations," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 51(3), pages 503-537, August.
    5. Darrell, Duffie, 2010. "The Failure Mechanics of Dealer Banks," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 4, pages 131-153.
    6. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    7. Ulrike Malmendier & Devin Shanthikumar, 2014. "Do Security Analysts Speak in Two Tongues?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(5), pages 1287-1322.
    8. Claudia Champagne & Lawrence Kryzanowski, 2008. "The Impact of Past Syndicate Alliances on the Consolidation of Financial Institutions," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 37(3), pages 535-570, September.
    9. Gu, Zhaoyang & Wu, Joanna Shuang, 2003. "Earnings skewness and analyst forecast bias," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 5-29, April.
    10. Bhushan, Ravi, 1989. "Firm characteristics and analyst following," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(2-3), pages 255-274, July.
    11. Gorton, Gary & Metrick, Andrew, 2012. "Securitized banking and the run on repo," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(3), pages 425-451.
    12. Gorton, Gary & Metrick, Andrew, 2012. "Securitized banking and the run on repo," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(3), pages 425-451.
    13. Alexander Ljungqvist & Felicia Marston & William J. Wilhelm, 2006. "Competing for Securities Underwriting Mandates: Banking Relationships and Analyst Recommendations," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(1), pages 301-340, February.
    14. Ohad Kadan & Leonardo Madureira & Rong Wang & Tzachi Zach, 2009. "Conflicts of Interest and Stock Recommendations: The Effects of the Global Settlement and Related Regulations," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(10), pages 4189-4217, October.
    15. Barber, Brad M. & Lehavy, Reuven & McNichols, Maureen & Trueman, Brett, 2006. "Buys, holds, and sells: The distribution of investment banks' stock ratings and the implications for the profitability of analysts' recommendations," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1-2), pages 87-117, April.
    16. Alexander Ljungqvist & Felicia Marston & William J. Wilhelm, 2009. "Scaling the Hierarchy: How and Why Investment Banks Compete for Syndicate Co-management Appointments," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(10), pages 3977-4007, October.
    17. John Asker & Alexander Ljungqvist, 2010. "Competition and the Structure of Vertical Relationships in Capital Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 118(3), pages 599-647, June.
    18. Michaely, Roni & Womack, Kent L, 1999. "Conflict of Interest and the Credibility of Underwriter Analyst Recommendations," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 12(4), pages 653-686.
    19. Arvind Krishnamurthy, 2010. "How Debt Markets Have Malfunctioned in the Crisis," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(1), pages 3-28, Winter.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vadim S. Balashov & Zhanel B. DeVides, 2020. "Is Diversification A Job Safety Net For Sell‐Side Analysts?," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 43(3), pages 543-573, August.
    2. Galanti, Sébastien & Vaubourg, Anne Gaël, 2017. "Optimism bias in financial analysts' earnings forecasts: Do commissions sharing agreements reduce conflicts of interest?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 325-337.
    3. Haozhi Huang & Mingsheng Li & Jing Shi, 2020. "Should Financial Gatekeepers be Publicly Traded?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 175-200, June.
    4. Elizabeth Devos & Erik Devos & Seow Eng Ong & Andrew C. Spieler, 2016. "Who Follows REITs?," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 38(1), pages 129-164.
    5. Huang, Haozhi & Li, Mingsheng & Shi, Jing, 2016. "Which matters: “Paying to play” or stable business relationship? Evidence on analyst recommendation and mutual fund commission fee payment," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 40(PB), pages 403-423.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Juyoun Ryoo & Cheolwoo Lee & Jin Q Jeon, 2020. "Sustainability of Analyst Recommendations in Multiple Lead Underwriter IPOs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-36, March.
    2. Corwin, Shane A. & Larocque, Stephannie A. & Stegemoller, Mike A., 2017. "Investment banking relationships and analyst affiliation bias: The impact of the global settlement on sanctioned and non-sanctioned banks," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(3), pages 614-631.
    3. Cheolwoo Lee, 2013. "Analyst firm parent–subsidiary relationship and conflict of interest: evidence from IPO recommendations," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 53(3), pages 763-789, September.
    4. Zhao, Chen & Li, Yubin & Govindaraj, Suresh & Zhong, Zhaodong (Ken), 2022. "CDS trading and analyst optimism," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(4).
    5. Phillip J. McKnight & Steven K. Todd, 2013. "Forecast Bias and Analyst Independence," International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), vol. 0(2), pages 3-32.
    6. Lim, Youngdeok & Kim, Hyungtae, 2019. "Market reaction to optimistic bias in the recommendations of chaebol-affiliated analysts," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 224-242.
    7. Minzhi Wu & Mark Wilson & Yi Wu, 2017. "Was the Global Settlement Effective in Mitigating Systematic Bias in Affiliated Analyst Recommendations?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 146(3), pages 485-503, December.
    8. Mehran, Hamid & Stulz, Rene M., 2007. "The economics of conflicts of interest in financial institutions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 267-296, August.
    9. Dambra, Michael & Field, Laura Casares & Gustafson, Matthew T. & Pisciotta, Kevin, 2018. "The consequences to analyst involvement in the IPO process: Evidence surrounding the JOBS Act," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 302-330.
    10. Bradley, Daniel, 2018. "Discussion of “analyst stock ownership and stock recommendations”," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2), pages 499-505.
    11. Masahito Kato, 2016. "Analyst Recommendation Bias and Brokerage House Shareholding," Discussion Papers 1635, Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University.
    12. Altınkılıç, Oya & Balashov, Vadim S. & Hansen, Robert S., 2019. "Investment bank monitoring and bonding of security analysts’ research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 98-119.
    13. Hsiou-Wei Lin & Wen-Chuan Miao, 2010. "Exploring Optimism In Recommendations Accompanying Analyst Conflict Of Interest Rules," The International Journal of Business and Finance Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 4(3), pages 1-15.
    14. Beyer, Anne & Cohen, Daniel A. & Lys, Thomas Z. & Walther, Beverly R., 2010. "The financial reporting environment: Review of the recent literature," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 296-343, December.
    15. repec:kob:wpaper:1635 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Andreas Charitou & Irene Karamanou, 2020. "Sleeping with the enemy: should investment banks be allowed to engage in prop trading?," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 513-557, June.
    17. Jin, Han & Mazouz, Khelifa & Wu, Yuliang & Xu, Bin, 2023. "Can star analysts make superior coverage decisions in poor information environment?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    18. Mola, Simona & Guidolin, Massimo, 2009. "Affiliated mutual funds and analyst optimism," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 108-137, July.
    19. Vesa Pursiainen, 2022. "Cultural Biases in Equity Analysis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(1), pages 163-211, February.
    20. Miwa, Kotaro & Ueda, Kazuhiro, 2016. "Analysts’ preference for growth investing and vulnerability to market-wide sentiment," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 40-52.
    21. Daniel Arand & Alexander G. Kerl, 2015. "Sell†Side Analyst Research and Reported Conflicts of Interest," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 21(1), pages 20-51, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:finmgt:v:43:y:2014:i:2:p:327-353. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fmaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.