This paper examines whether customer base composition in the US, that is, whether a firm’s major customers are government entities or publicly traded companies, affects the properties of its management earnings forecasts (MEFs). Using a sample of 1168 MEFs from 1998 to 2014, we find that firms whose major customers are government entities (i.e., government suppliers) issue more precise and more accurate MEFs than firms whose major customers are public companies (i.e., corporate suppliers). Moreover, when managers disclose negative information to the market, earnings forecasts issued by government suppliers have greater price impact than those issued by corporate suppliers. Collectively, our empirical results suggest that having major government customers has a positive impact on the quality of MEFs.

中文翻译：

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主要政府客户和管理层盈利预测

本文研究了美国的客户群构成，即公司的主要客户是政府实体还是上市公司，是否会影响其管理收益预测 (MEF) 的属性。使用 1998 年至 2014 年的 1168 个 MEF 样本，我们发现主要客户为政府实体（即政府供应商）的公司比主要客户为上市公司的公司（即企业供应商）发布的 MEF 更准确、更准确。而且，当管理者向市场披露负面信息时，政府供应商发布的盈利预测比企业供应商发布的盈利预测具有更大的价格影响。总的来说，我们的实证结果表明，拥有主要政府客户对 MEF 的质量有积极影响。