Gender and connections among Wall Street analysts

• Main Authors: FANG, Lily Hua, HUANG, Sterling
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2017
• Subjects: analyst research; gender; connections; social network; Accounting; Corporate Finance; Gender and Sexuality; Portfolio and Security Analysis
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soa_research/1323; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soa_research/article/2322/viewcontent/hhx040.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

We examine how alumni ties with corporate boards differentially affect male and female analysts’ job performance and career outcomes. Connection improves men’s job performance — forecasting accuracy and recommendation impact — significantly more than women’s. Controlling for performance, connection further contributes to men’s, but not women’s, likelihood of being voted by institutional investors as “star” analysts, a marker of career success. These asymmetric effects are stronger in more opaque firms and among younger analysts, but is absent from a placebo test. Our evidence indicates that men reap higher benefits from social networks than women in both job performance and subjective evaluation.