PhD in Accounting
As a PhD student in accounting at Booth, you’ll have the freedom to explore and cultivate your research interests from day one—wherever they lead.
You’ll join a collaborative research community and work with prominent scholars whose groundbreaking research is recognized for its impact on the academic literature, accounting practice and policymaking, securities regulation, and elsewhere. In addition to your stipend, you may apply for research and conference travel funding from our research centers and the PhD Program. In research workshops and conferences, you’ll present your work and hear about the work of fellow researchers.
Our Distinguished Accounting Faculty
As measured by research productivity and impact, Chicago Booth has one of the best accounting faculty groups in the world. The group includes Ray Ball, Philip G. Berger, Hans B. Christensen, Merle Erickson, Christian Leuz, Michael Minnis, Valeri Nikolaev, Haresh Sapra, Douglas J. Skinner, and Abbie J. Smith, as well as an outstanding group of research-active junior faculty. The school is committed to maintaining the quality of this group.
These distinguished scholars are also teachers and mentors who will advise you, coauthor papers with you, supervise your thesis, help you find an outstanding job, and serve as colleagues throughout your career.
A Network of Support
Doctoral students at Booth have access to the resources of several research centers that offer funding for student work, host workshops and conferences, and foster a strong research community.
The Chookaszian Accounting Research Center
The Chookaszian Accounting Research Center coordinates accounting research at Chicago Booth and hosts research brown bags and workshops. It also publishes the Journal of Accounting Research, one of the top accounting research journals in the world.
George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State
Dedicated to examining issues at the intersection of politics and the economy, the Stigler Center supports research in the political, economic, and cultural obstacles to better working markets.
Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation
Chicago Booth’s destination for people committed to tackling social and environmental problems, the Rustandy Center supports the work of PhD students and others who are focused on transforming the social sector.
Alumni Success
The American Accounting Association periodically awards a prize for seminal contributions to the accounting literature. Graduates of the PhD Accounting Program are regular winners of this prestigious prize.
Our PhD graduates in accounting go on to faculty positions at some of the world's most prestigious institutions.
Christine Cuny, MBA ’13, PhD ’13
Assistant Professor of Accounting
New York University Stern School of Business
Christine Cuny studies the forces that shape the disclosure decisions of US local governments and corporations. She also examines how disclosure affects trading costs in the municipal and corporate bond markets. She earned her PhD in accounting.
Current Accounting Students
PhD students in accounting come to Chicago Booth with a wide range of interests and goals. Recent dissertations have focused on everything from machine learning to the impact of fiscal monitoring, and graduates have gone on to positions at some of the world’s preeminent institutions, including Columbia Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Samuel Chang
Jonas Dalmazzo
Jewel Evans
Yanzi (Yvonne) Han
Grant Hayes
Junfan (June) Huang
Kalash Jain
Roope Keloharju
Maria Khrakovsky
Alex Kim
Ginha Kim
Andrew McKinley
Fabian Nagel
Pietro Ramella
Sinja Leonelli
Hristiana Vidinova
Jingyu Zhang
Inside the PhD Student Experience
For Andrew Sutherland, PhD ’13, coauthoring research with Booth faculty was a highlight of the PhD Program.
Andrew Sutherland, ’13: 00:09
In accounting, there's tons and tons of research on these big public firms that have an army of investor relations people and they constant disclosing things. That's where most of the research was happening, but there's this whole other half of the economy, these private firms, that we didn't really know a lot about. We didn't know a lot about how they got credit. What was interesting to me is that a lot of time, firms are able to get credit without even providing any financial statements or any information whatsoever to the bank. The reason they're able to get credit is that they have a credit score. So in other words, the information is coming, not from the form itself, but from another bank who had dealt with them in the past. What really struck me was there wasn't really a lot of research out there on this information channel. That's when I decided I wanted to learn a little bit more about what this reporting channel does to contract and help firms get credit and how it changes banks' incentives to lend.
Andrew Sutherland, ’13: 01:01
Basically, the firms that have a good credit record or a long track record of borrowing successfully were the ones that were able to shop around. We would think that's a good thing, that giving firms more choice about who to borrow from kind of increases social welfare, you get better matching between lenders and firms. Kind of the dark side is that the firms that have had payment trouble that have defaulted or missed some payments on loans sort of get shut out of the credit part. You have a harder time starting any new relationships with outside lenders. That's kind of a cost.
Andrew Sutherland, ’13: 01:34
The second cost is that information sharing changes the game for lenders. So, if participating in this credit bureau basically allows outside lenders to pick off the firms that are doing better, then that destroys the incentive for lenders to kind of invest in relationships to begin with. That's sort of the second dark side of information sharing, if you will.
Andrew Sutherland, ’13: 01:54
So, I coauthor on a number of projects with the junior faculty member here named Mike Minnis. I probably talked to Mike more than I talk to my wife. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. But, I mean, as a PhD student, there's only so much you can learn in class, and having a faculty member to work with that's kind of gone through the ropes and understands the review process, that's done something on their own, it gives you a really good opportunity to learn. That's something, I think that was absolutely instrumental in my success
Spotlight on Research
Chicago Booth Review frequently highlights the work of accounting faculty and PhD students.
Why Some Companies Might Not Want to Outsource Tax Planning
Research by Chicago Booth’s John Barrios and John Gallemore suggests that outsourcing tax departments won’t help some businesses.
Why the Big Banks Aren’t Safe Yet
Banking and accounting rules need to sync up, writes Haresh Sapra of Chicago Booth.
Should Sustainability Disclosures Be Standardized?
Chicago Booth’s Hans B. Christensen and Christian Leuz consider the pros and cons of imposing standards for corporate social responsibility reporting.
Program Expectations and Requirements
The PhD Program at Booth is a full-time program. Students generally complete the majority of coursework and examination requirements within the first two years of studies and begin work on their dissertation during the third year.
For details, see General Examination Requirements by Area in the PhD Program Guidebook.
Download the Guidebook