Title: Salient Cues of Economic Transitions in Analyst Forecasting: Evidence from the Electric Vehicle Era
Speaker: Weikai Li, Associate Professor, the City University of HongKong
Time: 10:00-11:30, December 12th, 2025(Friday)
Venue: Room 1008, Mingde Business Building (Zhongguancun Campus)
Language: English/Chinese
ABSTRACT:
We examine how salient cues of broad economic trends shape financial analysts’ forecasting, using U.S. MSA-level electric vehicle (EV) adoption as a proxy for local green salience. After controlling for MSA, analyst, and firm characteristics, analysts in high-EV areas make more accurate forecasts for green firms. This improvement reflects not a net gain in forecasting ability, but a reallocation of limited attention and effort towards green firms. The effect is stronger among male, younger, and less busy analysts, and for harder-to-value firms, and is accompanied by more frequent forecast revisions, greater climate-related engagement during earnings calls, and increased use of opportunity-oriented climate language in analysts’ reports. Markets respond more strongly to forecast revisions by these analysts, and the information environment of green firms improves under their coverage.
SHORT BIOGRAPHY:
Weikai Li holds a Ph.D. in Finance from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and is a CFA Charterholder. Currently, he is a Tenured Associate Professor of Finance at the City University of Hong Kong. His research interests include empirical asset pricing, behavioral finance, and sustainable finance. He was an assistant professor from the Singapore Management University and previously a Visiting Research Fellow at the Hong Kong Institute for Monetary and Financial Research (HKIMR) under the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA). He has published numerous academic papers in leading international journals such as the Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Econometrics, and Review of Accounting Studies. His research has received awards at major international academic conferences, including the China International Conference in Finance (CICF), the Financial Management Association (FMA) Annual Meetings (Asia & Europe), the Asian Finance Association (AsianFA) Annual Meeting, the Chicago Quantitative Alliance Asia (CQAsia), and the Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment (GRASFI). He has been invited to present his research at numerous financial institutions in China and abroad, and his work has been featured by media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Tsinghua Financial Review. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for the Pacific Basin Finance Journal.