We analyze a unique, comprehensive, multi-decade dataset of all communications with clients by a boutique investment advisory and investment management firm to explore the behavior of individuals involved in financial decision making. We propose and test a theory of self-regulation to explain...

We decompose consensus analyst long-term growth forecasts into a hard growth component that captures accounting information (asset and sales growth, profitability and equity dilution) and an orthogonal soft growth component. The soft component does not forecast future returns, and the hard...