Are Analyst Recommendations Biased? Evidence from Corporate Bankruptcies
检验1995-2001年破产企业的分析师推荐是否存在偏见，发现包括关联分析师在内均无过度乐观，市场也未视关联分析师的升级为偏见，暗示近期减少利益冲突的立法可能反应过度。
Abstract We test whether a bias exists in analyst recommendations for firms that file for bankruptcy during 1995–2001. We fail to find overoptimism in analyst recommendations, including those of affiliated analysts. Our multivariate analysis of the market reaction to changes in analyst recommendations indicates that prior affiliation exerts no impact on either returns or trading volume. We find that the market does not view recommendation upgrades by affiliated analysts as biased since there is no price reversal following these recommendation changes. Overall, our results suggest that recently passed legislation to reduce analysts' conflicts of interest might be an overreaction.