研究成果
会议论文：
1. “Audit Stress Test for Goodwill Impairment”, with Jun Wang and Aloke Ghosh, August, 2015 American Accounting Association (AAA) Annual Meeting (Chicago)
2. “The Cost of Speaking in two different tongues”, with Jun Wang, Ge Zhang and Dan Yang, 2015, the 23rd Conference on the Theories and Practices of Securities and Financial Markets.
工作论文：
3. “The Cost of Speaking in two different tongues”, with Jun Wang
Abstract: Malmendier and Shinthikumar (2014) find that some analysts prefer to issue relatively higher stock recommendation ratings and relatively lower earnings forecast on the same firm at the same time. They describe this behavior as speaking in two different tongues. Following Malmendier and Shinthikumar’s (2014) definition of the two-tongue strategy, I explore the external influence of this strategy on financial analysts. I show that when analysts take the two-tongue strategy, they are suffering a cost by sacrificing their accuracy on their target firms. The more frequent an analyst takes the two-tongue strategy in the previous year, the less likely this analyst would be promoted
to a top 10 brokerage house and be nominated as an All-American analyst in the current year. Moreover, investors respond more positively to the higher stock recommendation ratings but ignore the lower earnings forecast on the firms where analysts apply the two-tongue strategy by showing no significant negative reaction.
4. “Security Analyst’s Double Down Behavior in Stock Recommendation”, with Jun Wang
Abstract: When a stock experiences a significant loss after a favorable recommendation from an analyst, the analyst can either continue to issue a favorable recommendation or reverse the course. I define the behavior of continuing favorable coverage as the analyst's doubling down behavior. I find analysts who double down are likely to get demoted and less likely to become an all-American analyst in the next year. Analyst makes biased recommendation in the double down behavior because of overconfidence instead of defending the firm. Stocks recommended by doubling down analysts have worse performance than stocks recommended by other analysts. Investors perform worse if they follow the buy recommendations of doubling down analysts.
5. “Audit Stress Test for Goodwill Impairment”, with Jun Wang and Aloke Ghosh
Abstract: Auditors are required to “stress test” goodwill for impairments which is considered complex and time-consuming. Inspections by PCAOB (2013, 2008) indicate significant audit deficiencies with the valuation tests of goodwill. We provide distinctive insights into the auditors’ stress tests of goodwill by studying the pricing of audit engagements based on a comprehensive sample. We find that auditors charge a hefty fee premium for goodwill tests, which is consistent with goodwill testing requiring extensive audit effort. In addition, when goodwill is impaired, there is an auxiliary audit fee surcharge. The goodwill related fee-premium varies directly with the size of the auditor and the number of reporting units. Using audit report lag as a direct measure of audit effort, we provide corroborating evidence that audit tests of goodwill lead to significantly longer audit report lag. Because “soft” assets are hard to verify and requires considerable audit judgment, we show that auditors charge a big fee premium for all intangible assets and not just goodwill. Collectively, our results indicate that auditors, especially the Big 4, understand the importance and complexities of testing goodwill for impairments.
毕业论文：
“Last Minute Earning Forecast Revision”
Abstract: I study financial analysts who revise their earnings forecasts just a few days before firms' earnings announcement. Analysts who apply this strategy are more accurate in their earnings forecasts, and they are more likely to move to a larger brokerage firm. All-star analysts are more likely to take this last minute revision strategy than non-all-star analysts. All-star analysts using the strategy are likely to maintain their all-star status and get a better career path, while non-all-star analysts are less likely to get promotion when they apply this strategy.
