Can Investors Adjust for Managerial Bias?

Financial information from firms often contains biased information. In this study, we posit and experimentally test the idea that investors will have difficulty in unraveling known biases in management’s earnings forecasts but will be most likely to fully adjust when the information about bias is in quantitative, EPS form and the investor’s judgment is compatible with that bias information (also in quantitative, EPS form). Results from three experiments suggest that indeed quantification and compatibility are beneficial for unraveling managerial bias, but even under these conditions not all investors are able to unravel. We also show that this result is robust to several moderator variables that capture factors that are commonly found in the management earnings forecast setting. Our study has implications for firm managers, regulators, and investors.