Gender Differences And The Quality Of Star Analysts’ Earnings Forecasts

Securities analysts are important market intermediaries for the effective allocation of scarce capital.With a fast-growing team of analysts and their poor forecasts quality,investors are difficult to make decisions.In this context,star analyst selection has been sought after by analysts and investors.However,in recent years,analysts’“canvassing”news emerged during the selection,especially some female analysts’“vulgar canvassing”news has caused widespread concern and questioning about female star analysts:Do the female star analysts have qualified abilities?Based on this,this paper intends to answer this question by examining the relationship between genderdifferences and the quality of star analysts’ earnings forecasts.Using a sample of 31,491 earnings forecasts released by star analysts during 2009-2017,this paper examines the relationship between gender differences and earnings forecast quality,and finds that compared with male star analysts,female star analysts have significantly higher quality of earnings forecasts and the advantage is more significant when the broker is smaller and when the market situation is "bear market".In a further analysis of impact paths,this paper finds that with fewer forecasts and less company coverage,female star analysts have significantly higher industry expertise and release more forecasts for specific company,which is likely to be the main reason for the higher quality.In addition,the paper finds that the quality of cash flow forecasts of female star analysts is also significantly higher.Therefore,this paper shows that female analysts who break through the“glass ceiling”and become male-dominated star analysts actually need to have stronger professional abilities.The research contributions of this paper are:Theoretically,this paper not only extends the gender differences research to the field of star analysts,but also enriches the research literature on the heterogeneity of analysts’forecast quality.In practice,the conclusions of the paper respond well to the individual“vulgar canvassing”events and provide more direct and reliable empirical evidence for the practice abilities of female star analysts.It has certain reference value for the current star analyst selection activity.