phd en audit

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Our doctoral program in accounting offers broadly based, interdisciplinary training.

Emphasis is placed on developing a conceptual framework and set of skills for addressing questions broadly related to information systems and frictions. While issues of disclosure, financial reporting, managerial accounting, corporate governance, and taxation are usually the ultimate concern, emphasis is given to applying basic knowledge of economics, decision theory, and statistical inference to approaching these issues.

Faculty interests

Faculty research uses empirical and analytical methods to investigate a broad spectrum of topics. Examples include:

• Research on the relation between accounting information and capital market behavior examines the characteristics of accounting amounts, the effect of accounting disclosures on the capital market, the roles of information intermediaries, and the effects of management discretion. 
• Research on the production, communication, usage, and effects of disclosures outside of capital markets, including many settings where information frictions undermine transactional efficiency or stakeholder welfare (e.g., ESG reporting, intra-firm communications, and consumer financial product markets). 
• The economic effects of business tax policies on firm decision-making, including financial reporting, investment and employment choices, and firm location decisions 
• The economic effects of auditing and regulation of accounting information
• Problems of information asymmetries among management, investors, and transacting partners. This research investigates the structure of incentive systems and monitoring systems under conditions of information asymmetry. Research on moral hazard, adverse selection, risk sharing, and signaling is incorporated into this work.

Preparation and Qualifications

Successful GSB students have come from a variety of experiences and backgrounds. Work experience in accounting or a related field is valuable but not required. 

During the PhD program, all students will be expected to develop a solid understanding of applied microeconomic theory and econometrics. This requires working knowledge of mathematics such as probability and statistics, linear algebra, calculus and optimization. We recommend that students who do not have recent coursework in these areas work on building their skill sets before the start of the program. If admitted, faculty can advise prospective students on addressing potential gaps.

Programming languages such as Python, R, Stata, and Matlab are frequently used in coursework and research. While the PhD program will help students develop programming skills, gaining some familiarity beforehand can be beneficial.

Faculty in Accounting

Christopher s. armstrong, jung ho choi, george foster, brandon gipper, ron kasznik, john d. kepler, jinhwan kim, rebecca lester, iván marinovic, maureen mcnichols, joseph d. piotroski, kevin smith, emeriti faculty, mary e. barth, william h. beaver (1940–2024), david f. larcker, charles m. c. lee, stefan j. reichelstein, recent publications in accounting, esg assurance in the united states, internalizing peer firm product market concerns: supply chain relations and m&a activity, fraudulent financial reporting and the consequences for employees, recent insights by stanford business, american innovation got slammed by the “temporary” end of a key tax incentive, your company is on a high-growth list it may not be there next year., how corporate “diversity washers” spin investors.

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The PhD specialization in Accounting prepares students to become accounting scholars engaged in research and teaching at the highest levels in the general areas of financial information and contracting within and across organizations. 

Yale SOM’s specialization in accounting is designed to develop strong theoretical and empirical skills. There is a heavy emphasis on original research to form a base for sustained scholarship. Co-authored research, with both faculty and fellow PhD students, is encouraged and supported.

Yale’s accounting program is small (matriculating one to two students each year), and involves informal and spontaneous frequent interactions with faculty. The program maintains a 1:1 faculty-to-student ratio. Students interact with emerging research in a host of ways, from conferences held on campus to weekly seminars where faculty and fellow PhD students present and discuss their work.

Candidates tend to pursue a broad range of research interests, helped by courses in accounting as well as in various areas of management, Department of Economics, Yale Law School, and other parts of the University. They develop fruitful relationships with other Ph.d. students, especially from the Finance PhD program.

Examples of research submitted as dissertations by students in the program:

• Intended Benefits and Unintended Consequences of Improved Performance Disclosure
• Asymmetric Inefficiency in Market Response to Non-earnings 8-K Information
• Real Earnings Management in Nonprofit Organizations
• How Does More Frequent Reporting Reduce Information Asymmetry?
• Real Earnings Management in the Financial Industry
• Accruals and price crashes
• Customer-base concentration: Implications for firm performance and capital markets
• The Treatment of Special Items in Determining CEO Cash Compensation
• Strategic Decentralization, Bargaining, and Transfer Pricing in Supply Chain Efficiency
• Keynesian Beauty Contest, Accounting Disclosure, and Market Efficiency
• Labor Unions and Management’s Incentive to Signal Declining Profitability
• Investor Expectations, Earnings Management, and Asset Prices
• Limiting Outside Directors' Liability through Charter Provisions: An Empirical Analysis
• Nickels Not Pennies: Explanations and Implications of Granularity in Analysts’ EPS Forecasts
• Auditor’s Pre-Negotiation Information, Accuracy of Financial Reports and Consulting Services
• Taxes, Debt, and Firm Value: New Evidence

Examples of research co-authored with faculty and other students:

Publications.

• Management of reported and forecast EPS, investor responses, and research implications (Management Science
• Placebo Tests of Conditional Conservatism (The Accounting Review)
• Orphans Deserve Attention: Financial Reporting in the Missing Months When Corporations Change Fiscal Year (The Accounting Review)
• Why do EPS forecast error and dispersion not vary with scale? Implications for analyst and managerial behavior (Journal of Accounting Research)
• More Evidence of Bias in the Differential Timeliness Measure of Conditional Conservatism (The Accounting Review)
• The Effect of Litigation Risk on Management Earnings Forecasts (Contemporary Accounting Research)
• Friction in Related Party Trade when a Rival is also a Customer (Management Science)
• The Joint Determination of Audit Fees, Non-audit Fees and Abnormal Accruals (Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting)

Working Papers

• Rethinking Determinants of Trading Volume at Earnings Announcements
• Auditor Change Disclosures as Signals of Earnings Management and Risk
• Individual Investor Overextrapolation
• The Value and Information Effects of Initial Loan Contract Strictness
• The Information Quality Effect of Accruals-Based Benchmark Beating: Evidence from the CDS Market
• On the Contemporaneous Reporting of Income Increasing and Income Decreasing Special Items: Initial Evidence
• Conditional conservatism: the case of goodwill impairments under SFAS 142
• The power of firm fundamentals in explaining stock returns

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PhD in Accounting

• PhD in Behavioral Science
• PhD in Econometrics and Statistics
• PhD in Economics
• PhD in Finance
• PhD in Management Science and Operations Management
• PhD in Marketing
• Joint Program in Financial Economics
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Chicago Booth has one of the preeminent PhD accounting programs. Our faculty conduct groundbreaking scholarly work, and our graduates have played a central role in the evolution of modern accounting research.

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 Stevens Doctoral 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 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.

Philip G. Berger

Wallman Family Professor of Accounting

Hans B. Christensen

Chookaszian Family Professor of Accounting and David G. Booth Faculty Fellow

Anna Costello

Jeffrey Breakenridge Keller Professor of Accounting

Merle Erickson

Professor of Accounting

Joao Granja

Associate Professor of Accounting and Jane and Basil Vasiliou Faculty Scholar

Christian Leuz

Charles F. Pohl Distinguished Service Professor of Accounting and Finance

Bradford Levy

Assistant Professor of Accounting

Charles McClure

Associate Professor of Accounting

Michael Minnis

Deputy Dean for Faculty and Fuji Bank and Heller Professor of Accounting

Maximilian Muhn

Valeri Nikolaev

James H. Lorie Professor of Accounting and FMC Faculty Scholar

Madhav Rajan

Dean and George Pratt Shultz Professor of Accounting

Thomas Rauter

Amoray Riggs-Cragun

Assistant Professor of Accounting and Kathryn and Grant Swick Faculty Scholar

Delphine Samuels

Associate Professor of Accounting and James S. Kemper Faculty Scholar

Haresh Sapra

Charles T. Horngren Professor of Accounting

Douglas J. Skinner

Sidney Davidson Distinguished Service Professor of Accounting

Abbie J. Smith

Boris and Irene Stern Distinguished Service Professor of Accounting

Christopher Stewart

Assistant Professor of Accounting and Fama Faculty Fellow

Associate Professor of Accounting and Kathryn and Grant Swick Faculty Scholar

Anthony Welsch

Anastasia A Zakolyukina

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.

Fabien Nagel, MBA '24, PhD '24

Donald P. Jacobs Scholar and Assistant Professor of Accounting Information and Management Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University Fabian's research combines theory and data to examine how accounting and information issues affect consumer credit markets. His dissertation area is in accounting.

Sinja Leonelli, MBA '23, PhD '23

Assistant Professor of Accounting Stern School of Business, New York University Sinja's research primarily examines misconduct reporting, regulation and enforcement, and the use of ESG information by stakeholders such as regulators, employees, and consumers. Her dissertation area is in accounting.

Kalash Jain, MBA '23, PhD '23

Assistant Professor of Business, Accounting Division Columbia Business School, Columbia University His research examines the impact of information processing frictions and investor decision making on asset prices and firm investment. His dissertation area is in accounting.

Shirley Lu, MBA ’21, PhD ’21 

Assistant Professor of Business Administration Harvard Business School, Harvard University Shirley Lu studies Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) disclosure, with a focus on climate change and gender diversity. Her dissertation area is in accounting.

Spotlight on Research

Chicago Booth Review frequently highlights the work of accounting PhD students, faculty, and alumni.

One Way Discrimination Creeps into the Supply Chain

A Q&A with Chicago Booth’s Anna Costello about how the pandemic affected which suppliers got paid on time.

AI Reads between the Lines to Discover Corporate Risk

“Corporate risk exposures are often subtly implied in conference call discussions rather than explicitly stated,” write Chicago Booth PhD student Alex G. Kim and Booth’s Maximilian Muhn and Valeri Nikolaev.

Civilization is Based on Accounting

A Q&A with Chicago Booth’s Ray Ball on accounting’s past and future.

Financial Data Privacy Could Help Fight Poverty

Historical data can shape future outcomes, helping to determine whether a prospective borrower has access to a home, car, or other opportunities, write University of Utah’s Mark Jansen, Chicago Booth PhD student Fabian Nagel, and Booth’s Constantine Yannelis and Anthony Lee Zhang.

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.

Inside the Student Experience

For Andrew Sutherland, PhD ’13, coauthoring research with Booth faculty was a highlight of the Stevens Program.

Video Transcript

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

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.

Current Students

Esteban Espinoza Aburto Carolina Maia Silva Araujo Samuel Chang Jonas Dalmazzo Jewel Evans Lingyu (Laura) Gu Yanzi (Yvonne) Han Grant Hayes Maria Khrakovsky Alex Kim Ginha Kim Andrew McKinley Pietro Ramella Subhradip Sarker Jizhou Wang Hanbyul Yoon

Program Expectations and Requirements

The Stevens Doctoral Program at Chicago 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 Stevens Program Guidebook below.

Download the 2024-25 Guidebook!

Accounting PhD Program

accounting phd program

Be more than a PhD. Be an accounting powerhouse.

It all adds up: incomparable faculty, top research publication rankings, excellent teaching opportunities and a history of great post-graduation placements.

The Eller Doctoral Program in Accounting stands out as a leader with its high concentration of bright minds and collaborative research.

Graduate Program Coordinator Denise Burruel

520-621-2697 [email protected]

Program Essentials

This accounting doctoral program’s aim is to prepare you to excel as an accounting educator or researcher at a top-50 research institution. As you near completion of your Eller program, our goal is to help you gain notice from excellent schools and prospective employers.

Plan of Study

You’ll spend your first two years learning about research areas, disciplines and methods. Years three and four are spent producing a quality dissertation and research pipeline. Your fifth year is dedicated to progressing your dissertation and research, preparing for a final oral defense and job recruiting.

Accounting PhD Program for archival-tax research BYU Accounting Rankings

Accounting PhD Program for archival-auditing research BYU Accounting Rankings

Accounting PhD Program for graduates' publication record BYU Accounting Rankings

Doctoral Admissions Process

Applicants must have a four-year bachelor’s degree, a minimum 3.0 GPA and a minimum 675 GMAT score (taken within the last five years). You’ll need to compile transcripts and test scores, then submit an online application to the University of Arizona Graduate College.

All of our PhD students are awarded a generous financial package that covers full tuition plus a stipend for living expenses. You may be able to supplement that stipend by teaching extra courses (such as over the summer). Additional scholarships and fellowships are also available.

Application Deadline

We will be admitting our next student class to start the Fall of 2026, and recruiting for that will begin in late fall 2025.

TBA : Next Application Deadline for Fall 2026 Admission (Domestic and International)

Doctoral students are admitted only in the fall semester, and all application materials must be submitted online.

Your coursework will prepare you for cutting-edge research on substantive accounting issues in the areas of managerial accounting, financial accounting, auditing and tax. You can take advantage of the many resources available to you as a doctoral student and sustain our track record of publishing in the top accounting journals.

Our doctoral program strives to prepare our students for competitive faculty positions at Tier-1 accounting research universities. Our past graduates have earned positions at institutions including the University of Chicago, Ohio State University, University of Notre Dame and University of Southern California.

Accounting Faculty

Our esteemed faculty work closely with doctoral students throughout their coursework and research, mentoring students and guiding them to become successful researchers and teachers. With research ranging from auditing and tax to financial reporting and behavioral and cost accounting, they are a great resource.

Student Spotlight

Jacob Jaggi, PhD Alumni'20

The American Accounting Association (AAA) 2021 Auditing Section Virtual Midyear Meeting has chosen our PhD Alumni'20, Jacob Jaggi's dissertation titled, "When Does the Internal Audit Function Enhance Audit Committee Effectiveness?" for the 2021 Outstanding Auditing Dissertation Award . This award is given to the author of the dissertation who makes the most outstanding contribution to auditing knowledge. Additionally, Professor Preeti Choudhary and Professor Jayanthi Sunder (co-chairs for Jacob’s dissertation) were chosen to receive the Dissertation Committee Chair Award. Jacob dissertation idea received several recognition and awards, such as the 2019 AAA Western Region Conference Best Doctoral Student Paper Award and the 2018 Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Michael J. Barrett Doctoral Dissertation Grant for his dissertation idea, which provided him with financial support. Jacob was placed as an Assistant Professor at Washington State University in May 2020.

Start Your Journey to the Top of Your Field

Small class sizes. A great faculty-to-doctoral-student ratio. Incredible research resources. A stellar track record. And you.

Contact us with any questions , or if you're ready to apply to the Eller Doctoral Program in Accounting, just click below. We look forward to making breakthroughs together.

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Accounting & Management

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Accounting & Management

Curriculum & coursework.

Our programs are full-time degree programs which officially begin in August. Students are expected to complete their program in five years. Typically, the first two years are spent on coursework, at the end of which students take a field exam, and then another three years on dissertation research and writing.

Students in the Accounting and Management program must complete a minimum of 13 semester-long doctoral courses in the areas of business management theory, economic theory, quantitative research methods, academic field seminars, and two MBA elective curriculum courses. In addition to HBS courses, students may take courses at other Harvard Schools and MIT.

Research & Dissertation

Students in accounting and management begin research in their first year typically by working with a faculty member. By their third and fourth years, most students are launched on a solid research and publication stream. In Accounting and Management, the dissertation may take the form of three publishable papers or one longer dissertation.

Recent questions students have explored include: the ways in which managers use retail-level marketing actions to influence the timing of consumer purchases in relation to their firms’ fiscal calendars and financial performance as well as those of their competitors; the role of accounting information in strategic human resource decisions; the evolution, consequences and institutional determinants of unregulated financial reporting practices; the effects of adopting rolling forecasts on forecast quality.

Elliot Tobin

Professor Charles Wang

“ I’m constantly inspired to look into new research angles by the brilliant people I run into on campus every day. ”

Recent Placement

Yaxuan chen, 2024, hashim zaman, 2022, wei cai, 2020, matthew shaffer, 2019, botir kobilov, 2024, patrick ferguson, 2021, jihwon park, 2020, wilbur chen, 2022, alexandra scherf, 2021, jody grewal, 2019, current accounting & management students.

• Ji Ho Kim
• Yiwei Li
• Trang Nguyen
• Konstantin Pavlenkov
• Ria Sen
• Terrence Tianshuo Shi
• Albert Shin
• Elliot Tobin
• Wenxin Wang
• Siyu Zhang

Current HBS Faculty

• Brian K. Baik
• Dennis Campbell
• Srikant M. Datar
• Aiyesha Dey
• Susanna Gallani
• Brian J. Hall
• Jonas Heese
• Robert S. Kaplan
• V.G. Narayanan
• Joseph Pacelli
• Lynn S. Paine
• Krishna G. Palepu
• Ananth Raman
• Clayton S. Rose
• Ethan C. Rouen
• Tatiana Sandino
• David S. Scharfstein
• George Serafeim
• Anywhere Sikochi
• Robert Simons
• Eugene F. Soltes
• Suraj Srinivasan
• Adi Sunderam
• Charles C.Y. Wang
• Emily Williams

Current HBS Faculty & Students by Interest

Accounting and auditing concentration

The ESSEC PhD program in Accounting and Auditing (A&A) is devoted to training doctoral candidates to conduct research at the highest level on questions dealing with the role of accounting information in an ever-changing economic environment. It is aimed at providing the necessary intellectual equipment to conduct scholarly research on a variety of accounting and auditing issues.

Research in accounting and auditing addresses a large spectrum of questions, including:

• the impact of accounting information on financial market participants and other users;
• the issues related to information asymmetries between managers and outsiders and the effects of managerial discretion;
• the structure of incentive and monitoring systems;
• the challenges in reporting on increasingly complex financial transactions and instruments and their valuation effects;
• the convergence of national financial reporting systems towards an international standard of reference and its impact on capital markets;
• the role(s) of auditing and the economic effects of regulation of accounting information;
• the role(s) of accounting and accountants in organizations and society, etc.

A&A PhD students can choose to follow either a quantitative or qualitative research track. Students following the quantitative track are required to undertake training in accounting, finance, microeconomics, statistics, econometrics, and quantitative research methods, etc. Students following the qualitative track are required to undertake training in accounting, microeconomics, statistics, management, and qualitative research methods, etc. In addition, all students can take elective courses they find useful for their research.

Students can specialize in one of the following subfields:

• Auditing and regulation
• Corporate finance and governance
• Empirical financial accounting and reporting
• Financial statement analysis
• International financial reporting
• Organizational and social aspects of accounting
• Social and environmental accounting

The Accounting and Management Control Department enjoys worldwide recognition for the excellence of its research. Its faculty members publish on a regular basis in top accounting and business journals, such as Accounting, Organizations and Society, Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, Contemporary Accounting Research, European Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of International Business Studies, Management Science, and Strategic Management Journal, etc. ESSEC professors have strong connections with the academic community, serving as editors, associate editors and editorial board members of major journals, organizing high-level international conferences, and routinely presenting their research in workshops and conferences held by leading academic institutions and premier academic journals. The Department also holds annually a research seminar series, featuring research presentations by high-profile, world-renowned scholars.

• Ionela Andreicovici - Frankfurt School of Finance and Management (Germany)
• Lisa Baudot - University of Central Florida (USA) / Current: HEC Paris (France)
• Nava Cohen - New Jersey City University (USA)
• Emeline Deneuve – HEC Montreal (Canada)
• Alessandro Ghio - Monash University (Australia) / Current: Laval University (Canada)
• Dmitry Golubkov - Industry
• Thi Hong Nhung Hoang - SKEMA Business School (France)
• Zhongwei Huang - Cass Business School (UK) / Current: Fudan University (China)
• Jin Jiang - Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (China)
• Like Jiang - University of Melbourne (Australia)
• Damien Lambert - Monash University (Australia)
• Junqi Liu – Xiamen University (China)
• Rucsandra Moldovan - Concordia University (Canada)
• Joanne Sopt - San Francisco State University (USA)
• Cong Tao - Lancaster University Management School (UK)