Exploration intensity, analysts’ private information development and their forecast performance
研究了澳大利亚采掘业分析师如何根据企业勘探评估活动的复杂性调整私有信息搜索与处理，发现勘探强度越高，分析师预测中私有信息比例和准确性也越高，对投资者和会计准则制定者有参考价值。
This study examines whether analysts in the extractive industries in Australia adjust their private information searching and processing in response to the complexity of information about a firm’s exploration and evaluation (E&E) activities. We find that both the proportion of private information in their forecasts and the accuracy of their forecasts increase with the intensity of E&E activities. Additional analyses reveal that this effect is more pronounced for firms with substantial E&E activities but limited production activities, and that analysts’ private information development activities are mainly related to the capitalized E&E expenditures. Our results provide guidance for both investors and future standard setters. They show that investors can benefit from analysts’ expertise in situations of high information asymmetry. They also provide evidence of the advantage of distinguishing successful from unsuccessful investments in resource exploration when accounting for E&E expenditures, which may inform future decisions about accounting for intangible assets.