In 1995 Congress passed the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (PSLRA), which grants public companies a safe harbor from liability for forward-looking statements (FLS). Because investors cannot reasonably assess the legitimacy of forward-looking information for initial public offerings...

We document a walk-down in GDP growth projections that is akin to that in sell-side analysts' earnings forecasts. While the walk-down in earnings forecasts has been generally attributed to the strategic interplay between corporate managers and sell-side analysts, professional macro forecasters...