Note on adjustments to analysts’ earnings forecasts based upon systematic cross-sectional components of prior-period errors

This study assesses the effectiveness of using systematic components of cross-sectional forecast errors from prior years in order to adjust current analysts’ earnings forecasts. The empirical results document that a significant component of the cross-sectional MSE in analysts’ forecasts is systematic, and that parameter estimates from earlier periods enable the elimination of a substantial portion of the systematic errors in current forecasts. Further improvements in forecast accuracy are attained by the incorporation of prior-year excess security returns in order to reduce unsystematic error.