Is the US Economy ‘Going Dark’?
The growth of privately held businesses has some regulators and policy makers pondering whether to push for more financial transparency.
{PubDate}
Biography
Haresh Sapra is the Charles T. Horngren Professor of Accounting at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He studies the real effects of accounting measurement policies, disclosure regulation, and corporate governance. He has written extensively on issues of disclosure, transparency and financial reporting for financial institutions. For example, how do accounting measurement rules impact the optimal design of prudential regulation for financial institutions? To what extent should accounting and prudential regulation be linked? His current research investigates the role of mark-to-market accounting on bank stability. His research has been published in journals such as The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Games and Economic Behavior and the Journal of Accounting and Economics. His research has been featured in the Economist, Wall Street journal, Bloomberg, and the Financial Times. He is currently the editor of the Journal of Accounting Research. Sapra has also won the Ernest R. Wish Accounting Research Award for his paper "Do Mandatory Hedge Disclosures Discourage or Encourage Excessive Speculation?"
Sapra has won teaching awards in all the programs at Booth. Sapra has been named one of the top-ranked professors in BusinessWeek's Guide to the Top Business Schools. Sapra teaches an MBA elective entitled "Deal Structuring and Financial Reporting Implications" to Full time and Part time MBA students, a course on Financial Accounting to Executive MBA students, and a course on Economic Modeling of Accounting Issues to PhD students. Here is a video that describes the course on Deal Structuring.
Sapra earned a PhD in Business Administration in 2000 from the University of Minnesota and then joined the Chicago Booth faculty in 2000.
Sapra is an accomplished runner who has competed in over thirty two marathons with a personal best time of 2:53:06. He is an Abbott World Marathon Majors 6-star finisher.
Research Interests
Disclosure regulation; economic consequences of accounting measurement policies; corporate governance.
Academic Areas
- Accounting
Selected Publications
Measuring Green House Gas Emissions: What are the Costs and Benefits? with Lucas Mahieux and Gaoqing Zhang. Forthcoming Journal of Accounting Research.
Bridging Theory and Empirical Research in Accounting with Matthias Breuer, Eva Labro, and Anastasia Zakolyukina. Journal of Accounting Research 62 (2024).
Interplay between Accounting vs. Prudential Regulation, with Jeremy Bertomeu and Lucas Mahieux. The Accounting Review 98 (2023).
CECL: Timely Loan Loss Recognition and Bank Regulation with Lucas Mahieux and Gaoqing Zhang (Journal of Accounting Research, 61 (2023).
Should Banks’ Stress Tests Results Be Made Public? An Analysis of the Costs and Benefits, with Itay Goldstein, Foundations and Trends in Finance 8 (2013): 1–53.
A Real Effects Perspective to Accounting Measurement and Disclosure: Implications and Insights for Future Research with C. Kanodia, Journal of Accounting Research (2016) 54: 623–676
For a listing of research publications, please visit the university library listing page.
Working Papers
2025 - 2026 Course Schedule
Get Insights from Haresh Sapra in Chicago Booth Review
Haresh Sapra: Now Is Not the Time to Relax Accounting Standards
A COVID-19 Q&A with the Charles T. Horngren Professor of Accounting.
{PubDate}
Why Current Accounting Rules Could Stop Banks from Lending
Chicago Booth's Haresh Sapra says that at a time when lending is crucial to keeping companies afloat, we should be careful not to repeat our past mistakes.
{PubDate}