What determine financial analysts’ career outcomes during mergers?

Abstract

We investigate the effects of mergers on the career outcomes of financial analysts. We hypothesize and find that analysts with good earnings forecast performance experience higher turnover during mergers, target analysts are more likely to turnover and the existence of a competing analyst in a merger counter party also increases analyst turnover. We analyze the promotion of analysts to research executive positions and find that analysts with greater experience and especially experienced stars are more likely to be promoted. Finally, we document that analyst turnover is associated with decreases in research quality at the merged firms post-merger.