CFA and Sell-Side Analysts

Certification Program and Sell-Side Analysts

The learning from CFA program curriculum substantially improves analyst recommendation performance. The positive impact is much larger for analysts covering smaller companies or companies with thinner analyst coverage.

Analysts improve their performance when going through the CFA program as candidates but stop such improvements after completing the program. :))))

The learning from the CFA program also significantly reduces risk-taking and bias behavior in analyst recommendations. Moreover, CFA designations increase analysts’ mobility to larger brokerage firms. The results survive various robustness checks, including using different methods to deal with the selection bias.