In their day-to-day work and life, D.C.-area brokerage staffers encounter private political information that may inform their stock recommendations.

In “From K Street to Wall Street: Political Connections and Stock Recommendations,” Dane Christensen and his coauthors look into whether analysts with political connections yield an information advantage over other analysts.

Said Christensen, “Even if a politician revealed something that individually may not seem like a big deal, when you combine it with the other things that investment firm analysts know, collectively, that gives these analysts a leg up above the competition.”

In the video, assistant professor of accounting Dane Christensen discusses the research and key findings. Coauthored with Michael Mikhail of the University of Illinois at Chicago, Beverly Walther of Northwestern University, and Laura Wellman of the University of Utah, the work also appeared in The Accounting Review.

—AnneMarie Knepper-Sjoblom '05, Lundquist College Communications