Management earnings forecasts and the market's reaction to predicted bias in the forecast

Jong Hag Choi, David A. Ziebart

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

28 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

Prior research regarding management earnings forecasts has failed to reject the null hypothesis that the forecasts are not biased. In this study, we find that short-term forecasts are pessimistically biased, while long-term forecasts are optimistically biased. When we pool the forecast observations, consistent with prior studies, we are not able to find the existence of bias. In addition, our evidence suggests that the magnitude of the bias is associated with ex ante information—the unexpected portion of the forecast, firm size, forecast horizon, firm performance, and growth potential of the firm. Since this information is publicly available when a forecast is announced, investors may use it to estimate the bias component included in the management earnings forecast. Our results indicate that while the bias component is predictable, the market still significantly responds to the predicted bias when the forecast is released. In addition, we find that the market's response to the predicted bias decreases as investors' private information search activity increases.

Original languageCroatian
Pages (from-to)167-192
Number of pages26
JournalAsia-Pacific Journal of Accounting and Economics
Volume11
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2004

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2004, Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Keywords

  • bias
  • management earnings forecast
  • private information search

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Accounting
  • Finance
  • Economics and Econometrics

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