Wednesday, September 20, 2017 | 2:00pm-3:30pm | Room 335, HSBC Business School Building

Abstract

We show that analysts who enjoy more connectivity with firms’ managers, or are seen as more skillful and enjoy more stature, are more successful in the labor market than peers from the same brokerage when their brokerages close. Our novel measure of connectivity and skill-related stature is the order in which an analyst gets to speak in the Q&A session of earnings conference calls. Connectivity matters more for sell-side than for buy-side employers. Our results build on Hong and Kubik (2003) in showing that the labor market rewards analyst attributes not captured by traditional measures such as forecast accuracy or optimism.