Academic Areas Accounting Faculty and Research

The accounting faculty at Chicago Booth produce groundbreaking research across the accounting spectrum—from accounting practice and policymaking to securities regulation and the role of accounting in contracting.

Pathbreaking accounting professors at Booth such as Ray Ball, a recipient of the Wharton-Jacobs Levy Prize for Quantitative Financial Innovation, have revolutionized the modern accounting literature in business today. Much of the revolutionary accounting research our faculty create is incorporated into Booth’s curriculum through foundational accounting courses such as Accounting, Economic, and Regulatory Issues in Complex Deals, and innovative course offerings not found elsewhere, such as Taxes and Business Strategy.

Beyond their teaching acumen, our faculty in this academic area regularly publish in the world’s leading accounting journals, including the Journal of Accounting and Economics and the Accounting Review. Four faculty members are senior editors at the Journal of Accounting Research.

Accounting Faculty

At Booth, we believe in a multidisciplinary approach to business education. In addition to teaching foundational accounting courses such as Financial Accounting, our faculty are developing innovative courses that cross disciplinary lines.

Courses such as Accounting for Entrepreneurship: From Start-Up through IPO, for instance, incorporate the dynamics of the COVID-19 crisis into an examination of the tools needed to provide accounting and related functions for private, entrepreneurial firms. Other classes such as Taxes and Business Strategy use a textbook coauthored by Booth professor Merle Erickson to provide students with a durable, portable framework for thinking about tax planning.

Discover more about our accounting faculty, including the classes they teach, below.

Featured Research in Chicago Booth Review

Discover some of the latest research from our accounting professors.

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Who Benefited from CARES Tax Provisions?

Research from Booth’s John Gallemore suggests the act’s tax provisions were not material for most publicly traded US companies.

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Policymakers’ COVID-19 Accounting Gift to Banks

Banks shouldn’t get relief from a controversial standard meant to discipline risk-taking, says Booth’s Haresh Sapra.

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Banking Regulators Operate Differently under Public Scrutiny

Booth’s Rimmy Tomy finds a regulatory move toward transparency has broadly changed the behavior of bank monitors as well as outcomes for banks.

Awards and Honors

The American Accounting Association awarded Delphine Samuels with its 2020 Competitive Manuscript Award for her manuscript "Government Procurement and Changes in Firm Transparency.” The award, which is chosen by blind review, aims to encourage research among members of the American Accounting Association who have earned their PhD in the past five years.

Learn More About Her Research

Research with Impact

“A lot of the pressure comes from investors—regular people, retail investors, and also institutional investors. They want to have a return, but they also want to invest in something that they believe in.”

Hans B. Christensen, speaking to recent research he conducted with fellow Booth professor Christian Leuz. Their research examines what the economic impact would be if the United States mandated reporting standards for corporate social responsibility activities for US-based companies. What they find has broad implications for both firms and stakeholders.

Watch Professor Christensen Explain

Our MBA Concentrations in This Area

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Accounting

Learn how to evaluate economic performance, use accounting information for financial decisions, and create and assess managerial incentives.

Our PhD Dissertation Areas in This Area

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Accounting

As a PhD student in accounting at Booth, you’ll work with outstanding faculty and focus your doctoral research on your own areas of interest.

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Accounting Faculty in the News

Audit Partner Rotation Delivers Few Benefits: Study
September 25, 2020 | CFO
A new study coauthored by Booth’s Christian Leuz analyzes the reasons behind mandating auditor rotations. Published in the Accounting Review, the study finds no significant falloff in reporting quality over the course of auditors’ five-year tenures.

Shopping Mall Fixtures Seek More Aid as Pandemic Pummels Retail
July 10, 2020 | Bloomberg Tax
Retailers, especially apparel companies, frequently mentioned CARES Act tax benefits in their financial disclosures, according to research coauthored by Booth’s John Gallemore.

Banks Push for Capital Changes as CECL Provisions Soar
June 11, 2020 | Risk
A paper coauthored by Booth’s Haresh Sapra suggests that greater provisions under the current expected credit loss (CECL) accounting standard are a “double-edged sword.” As capital dwindles, regulators are more likely to intervene. The prospect of earlier intervention may incentivize banks to pursue lucrative but risky loans.

Partnering across the University of Chicago and Beyond

Our accounting faculty members are active in and outside of the University of Chicago.

In true interdisciplinary spirit, several of our faculty members share perspectives that spark new ideas in economics as UChicago Scholars with the Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics at the University of Chicago, including professors Ray Ball, Christian Leuz, and Douglas J. Skinner.

Other accounting faculty lend their expertise to editing journals. Philip G. Berger is a senior editor of the prestigious Journal of Accounting Research. He edits the journal with Booth professors Leuz, Skinner, and Haresh Sapra.

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Apply to Faculty Positions

Learn more about applying to our open faculty positions and joining the world-renowned faculty at Booth.

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Learn About Our Research Workshops

Our research workshops provide a forum for faculty, PhD students, and invited guests to present, discuss, and debate new research.

Research Spotlight

Discover some of the latest working papers and published papers from our accounting faculty.

“CECL: Timely Loan Loss Provisioning and Bank Regulation”
Haresh Sapra, with coauthors Lucas Mahieux (Tilburg University) and Gaoqing Zhang (University of Minnesota)

“The Economics of Misreporting and the Role of Public Scrutiny”
Delphine Samuels, with coauthors Daniel J. Taylor (The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania) and Robert E. Verrecchia (The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania)

“Breaking It Down: Economic Consequences of Disaggregated Cost Disclosures”
Philip G. Berger, with coauthors Jung Ho Choi (Stanford University Graduate School of Business) and Sorabh Tomar (Southern Methodist University)

Research Centers in This Area

Research centers across Booth and the University of Chicago are hubs for innovation and world-changing research. The centers provide our faculty with research support, and our faculty members lend their expertise to the centers, enriching the student experience and the broader academic community at Booth.