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Cornell University

Analysts' Private Connections

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

In this dissertation, I examine how analysts’ private connections to external peers across brokerages affect the quality of their research. I find that analysts with private connections (i.e., who are connected to external peers via past employment ties and covering the same firm) issue more accurate earnings forecasts than “unconnected” analysts. In addition, the effect of private connections on earnings forecast accuracy is more notable for analyst pairs who are, on average, employed by smaller brokerages, and who are, on average, less skilled, less experienced, and more resource constrained, thereby suggesting that private connections help to mitigate resource constraints and allow less skilled and less experienced analysts to improve their research through generating synergy. Importantly, the market underreacts to forecasts of privately connected analysts, leading to significant stock price drifts following forecast revisions. Using coverage terminations of connected peers as exogenous shocks to private connections, I find decreases in analyst forecast accuracy of the recipient analyst following coverage terminations of mutually covered stocks by connected peers due to permanent employment terminations of connected peers, brokerage terminations of the connected peers’ industry sector, and connected peers’ brokerage closures.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Ph. D., Management
Level thesis:degree_level
Doctor of Philosophy
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Management
Grantor
Cornell University
Year dc:date.issued
2021

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Kang, Charles Chao
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Ng, David T.
  • Zuo, Luo

Subjects

dc:subject × 4

Rights

Language dc:language.iso
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
ProQuest Submission ID: 12477
ProQuest Publication ID: 28490743
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:ecommons.cornell.edu:1813/109754

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Cornell University
Base URL
ecommons.cornell.edu/server/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Kang, Charles Chao. Analysts' Private Connections. Doctor of Philosophy thesis, Cornell University, 2021. https://hdl.handle.net/1813/109754