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Incentives or Irrationality? International Evidence from the Impact of Individualism on Analyst Forecast Bias

Based on a unique dataset that identifies the locations of 19,832 financial analysts covering 21,885 firms from 49 countries during 1996-2013, we find that individualism of analysts’ country of residence is negatively associated with their earnings forecast optimism and positively associated with their forecast accuracy. Using multiple proxies for economic incentives and cognitive biases, we find that individualism affects analyst forecast optimism and accuracy through the economic incentives that analysts face, rather than their cognitive biases (irrationality). Our results highlight the importance for regulators and investors to factor in culture values when battling against biased analyst research.