A principal-components analysis demonstrates that common earnings factors explain a substantial portion of rm-level earnings variation, implying earnings shocks have substantial systematic components and are not almost fully diversifiable as prior literature has concluded. Furthermore, the...

This paper examines whether analysts have an industry-level information advantage over managers when forecasting earnings. We argue that such an advantage is more likely to exist in industries where firm performance is more sensitive to industry-level external economic forces. We find that for...

This study predicts and finds that the interaction of firm-level and aggregate-level shocks explains a significant portion of shocks to macroeconomic activity. Specifically, we hypothesize that the relation between uncertainty and economic growth is most pronounced when both firm-level and...