时间：2014年5月27日（周二）下午 1:30pm--3:00pm
地点：会计学院108会议室
报告人：曾建光 博士 （西南财经大学）
主持人：周波
题目: Do Groups Outperform Individuals? Evidence from Earnings Forecasts
Paper Abstract: Prior research on social psychology reports mixed evidence on whether groups outperform individuals while accounting studies suggest that the judgment and decision making quality of groups versus individuals be contingent on different performance dimensions. In this study, we investigate whether groups of sell-side analysts have better performance in making earnings forecasts than individual analysts. Using data from China where the number of analyst groups is comparable to that of individual analysts, we find that analyst groups make more accurate earnings forecasts than individual analysts while group and individual analysts do not differ significantly in their forecast timeliness. Further analyses document that analyst groups outperform individual analysts in forecast accuracy for forecasted firms of larger size, with higher institutional ownership, and followed by more analysts. Our findings imply that teamwork in making earnings forecasts enhances forecast accuracy without reducing forecast timeliness, especially when there is greater competition among sell-side analysts to satisfy information needs on the capital market.