The Impact of European Regulatory Measures on Financial Analysts’ Behaviour and Information Environment

This dissertation investigates the impact of the European regulatory measures MAD (Market Abuse Directive, introduced in 2003) and MiFID (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, introduced in 2004) on the behaviour and information environment of sell-side financial analysts. The MAD and the MiFID are, amongst other objectives, geared up for the mitigation of conflicts of interest in the field of the financial analysts’ investment research and the prohibition of selective disclosures. The impact of the regulatory measures is examined by using the common sell-side financial analysts’ quantitative outputs target prices, earnings forecasts and stock recommendations. The main results of the empirical analysis imply that the regulatory measures induced conflicted sell-side analysts to avoid the intended impacts of the regulatory measures when issuing target prices. Moreover, the regulatory measures, which should prevent selective disclosures, can have unintended consequences, too.