We examine how alumni ties with corporate boards differentially affect male and female analysts' job performance and career outcomes. Connections improve analysts' forecasting accuracy and recommendation impact, but the effect is two to three times as large for men as for women. Connections also...

Using 1994–2009 data, we find that All-American (AA) analysts' buy and sell portfolio alphas significantly exceed those of non-AAs by up to 7% per annum after risk-adjustments for investors with advance access to analyst recommendations. For investors without such access, top-rank AAs still...