Accounting PhD Research
Accounting Research Areas, Disciplines and Methods
Accounting research may be classified on three dimensions: substantive area, source discipline and method. The key substantive areas are managerial accounting, financial accounting, auditing and tax. The common source disciplines are economics, finance, management and psychology. The typical research methods are analytical modeling, archival data analysis and experimental data analysis.
Our faculty and students have sustained a proven track record of publishing in the top accounting journals across all substantive areas utilizing archival and experiment data analysis.
Publication Rankings
Research by School of Accountancy faculty and doctoral students appears in a variety of top-ranked publications. Learn more:
For all research, the University of Arizona is ranked #37 in the world in terms of faculty publications in top-tier journals during the past 10 years.
For financial accounting research, the University of Arizona is ranked #42 in the world in terms of faculty publications in top-tier journals during the past 10 years.
For tax research, the University of Arizona is ranked #20 in the world in terms of faculty publications in top-tier journals during the past 10 years.
For audit research, the University of Arizona is ranked #21 in the world in terms of faculty publications in top-tier journals in the past 10 years.
For managerial research, the University of Arizona is ranked #28 in the world in terms of faculty publications in top-tier journals in the past 10 years.
All rankings are based on custom-generated reports from BYU's accounting research rankings website and consider only the following top-tier academic journals: The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Contemporary Accounting Research, Review of Accounting Studies and Accounting Organizations and Society
Faculty's primary research interests by research method include:
| Topic / Method | Archival | Experimental |
|---|---|---|
| Audit |
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| Financial |
Mei Cheng |
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| Managerial | Jeremy Douthit Jeffrey Schatzberg |
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| Tax |
Graduates of our doctoral program have placed at Tier-1 research universities and have maintained a strong record of publication success post-graduation.
For all research, the University of Arizona is ranked #5 in the world in terms of recent PhD publications in top-tier journals during their first six years post-graduation.
For financial accounting research, the University of Arizona is ranked #8 in the world in terms of recent PhD publications in top-tier journals during their first six years post-graduation.
For tax research, the University of Arizona is ranked #3 in the world in terms of recent PhD publications in top-tier journals during their first six years post-graduation.
For audit research, the University of Arizona is ranked #4 in the world in terms of recent PhD publications in top-tier journals during their first six years post-graduation.
For managerial research, the University of Arizona is ranked #2 in the world in terms of recent PhD publications in top-tier journals during their first six years post-graduation.
These rankings show the strong commitment our faculty has towards training our PhD students to be successful.
All rankings are based on custom-generated reports from BYU's accounting research rankings website and consider only the following top-tier academic journals: The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Contemporary Accounting Research, Review of Accounting Studies and Accounting Organizations and Society.
Faculty and Student Collaborative Research
Our program has a tradition of faculty-student research collaboration.
Listed below are some of our very recent successes. The coauthors of each publication or working paper contain at least one current faculty member and/or at least one current PhD student or PhD graduates (names of the students are highlighted in bold).
| Musaib Ashraf, Preeti Choudhary, and Jacob Jaggi. "Audit Committee Oversight and Financial Reporting Reliability: Are Audit Committees Overloaded?" Managemnet Science, forthcoming. |
| Lin Cheng, Jacob Jaggi, Paul Michas, and Jeffrey Schatzberg. "Auditor-related Provisions in Private Loan Agreements, Audit Fees, and Audit Quality" under review at Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory |
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Andrew Finley, and James Stekelberg. 2022. Measuring Tax Authority Monitoring. Journal of the American Taxation Association. |
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Katharine Drake, Nathan Goldman, and Francis Murphy. 2022. Foreign Employment, Income Shifting, and Tax Uncertainty. The Accounting Review. |
| Mei Cheng, Jacob Jaggi and Spencer Young 2021. “Customer Concentration of Target in Mergers and Acquisitions”. Journal of Business, Finance and Accounting. |
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Hribar, P., Rick Mergenthaler, Aaron Roeschley, Spencer Young, and C. X. Zhao. 2021. Do Managers Issue More Voluntary Disclosure When GAAP Limits Their Reporting Discretion in Financial Statements? Journal of Accounting Research. |
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Katharine Drake, Russ Hamilton, and Stephen Lusch. 2020. “Are declining effective tax rates indicative of tax avoidance? Insight from effective tax rate reconciliations.” Journal or Accounting and Economics. |
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Stephen Lusch, and James Stekelberg. 2020. State Tax Havens Legislation and Corporate Income Tax Revenues. Public Finance Review. |
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Musaib Ashraf, Paul Michas, and Dan Russomanno. 2020 "The Impact of Audit Committee Information Technology Expertise on the Reliability and Timeliness of Financial Reporting.” The Accounting Review. |
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James Brushwood, D. Johnston, L. Kutcher, and James Stekelberg. 2019. Did the FASB’s Simplification Initiative Increase Errors in Analysts’ Implied ETR Forecasts?. Journal of the American Taxation Association. |
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James Brushwood, D. M. Johnston, and Stephen Lusch. 2018. The effect of tax audit outcomes on the reporting and valuation of unrecognized tax benefits. Advances in Accounting. |
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Dan Dhaliwal, H. S. G. Lee, M. Pincus, and Logan Steele. 2017. Taxable Income and Firm Risk. Journal of the American Taxation Association. |
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Bae, G. S., S. U. Choi, Dan Dhaliwal, and Philip Lamoreaux. 2017. Auditors and Client Investment Efficiency. The Accounting Review. |
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Russ Hamilton, and James Stekelberg. 2017. The Effect of High-Quality Information Technology on Corporate Tax Avoidance and Tax Risk. Journal of Information Systems. |
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Judd, J. S., K. J. Olsen, and James Stekelberg. 2017. How Do Auditors Respond to CEO Narcissism? Evidence from External Audit Fees. Accounting Horizons. |
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Katharine Drake, Stephen Lusch, and James Stekelberg. 2017. Does Tax Risk Affect Investor Valuation of Tax Avoidance? Journal of Accounting, Auditing & Finance. |
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Katharine Drake, Nathan Goldman, and Stephen Lusch. 2016. “Do Income Tax Related Deficiencies in Publicly Disclosed PCAOB Part II Reports Influence Audit Client Financial Reporting of Income Tax Accounts?” The Accounting Review. |
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Matthew Erickson, Nathan Goldman, and James Stekelberg. 2016. The Cost of Compliance: FIN 48 and Audit Fees. Journal of the American Taxation Association. |
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Andrew Finley, and James Stekelberg. 2016. The Economic Consequences of Tax Service Provider Sanctions: Evidence from KPMG’s Deferred Prosecution Agreement. Journal of the American Taxation Association. |
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Phillip Lamoreaux, Paul Michas and Wendy Schultz. 2015. “Do Accounting and Audit Quality Affect World Bank Lending?” The Accounting Review. |
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Dan Dhaliwal, Scott Judd, Matthew Serffling, and Sarah Shaikh. 2015. “Customer Concentration Risk and the Cost of Equity Capital.” Journal of Accounting and Economics. |
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Dan Dhaliwal and Phillip Lamoreaux, L. Litov, and J. Neyland. 2015. “Shared Auditors in Mergers and Acquisitions.” Forthcoming at Journal of Accounting and Economics. |
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Andrew Finley, Stephen Lusch, and Kirsten Cook. 2015. The Effectiveness of the R&D Tax Credit: Evidence from the Alternative Simplified Credit. Journal of the American Taxation. |
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Dan Dhaliwal, Phillip Lamoreaux, C. S. Lennox, and Landon M. Mauler. 2014. "Management Influence on Auditor Selection and Subsequent Impairments of Auditor Independence during the Post-SOX Period." Contemporary Accounting Research. |
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Leslie Eldenburg, F. B. Gaertner, and T. H. Goodman. 2013. "The Influence of Ownership and Compensation Practices on Charitable Activities." Contemporary Accounting Research. |
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Yuan Zhang and Meiling Zhao, and Mei Cheng. “The Role of Equity Underwriters in Shaping Corporate Disclosure”. Conditional accept, Review of Accounting Studies |
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Paul Michas, Meiling Zhao, and Mei Cheng. “The Responses of Non-switching Audit Clients to Auditor Office Reputation Damage”. Revise and resubmit, AUDITING: A Journal of Practice and Theory |
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Neil Bhattacharya, Russ Hamilton and Jeff Jiewei Yu. “Are Accounting Reserves Biased? Evidence from the Deferred Tax Valuation Allowance.” |
| Max Hewitt, Rob Jennings, and Ben Van Landuyt. “Perceptions of ESG Goal Commitment and Investors’ Reactions to the Reasons for Firms’ Pivots in their ESG Initiatives” |
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Jade Chen, Aditi Khatri, and Shyam Sunder. "Does Verification of Internal Control over Financial Reporting Affect Voluntary Disclosure?" |
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Jade Chen, Paul Michas, Dan Russomanno, and Wenzi Zhuang. “United States Air Pollution, Auditors, and Misstatements in Financial Reporting.” Under review at AUDITING: A Journal of Practice & Theory. |
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Jade Chen and Preeti Choudhary. “The Impact of National Office Involvement on Audit Quality,” presented at the 2021 Hawaii Accounting Research Conference, the 2021 Financial Accounting and Reporting Section Conference, and the 2021 Auditing Midyear 2021 Conference of the AAA. |
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Jeremy Douthit, Michael Majerczyk, and Lisa McLuckie Thain. “Updated Theory and New Evidence on the Effect of Information System Precision on Managerial Reporting.” |
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Musaib Ashraf, Michael S. Drake, Rick Mergenthaler, and Jacob Thornock. "Does Monitoring by Retail Investors Improve Financial Reporting Quality?” |
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Rick Mergenthaler, Paul Hribar, Aaron Roeschley, Spencer Young, and Chris X. Zhao. "Within-GAAP Discretion and Voluntary Disclosure" |
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Jeremy Douthit, Max Hewitt, and Ashley Sauciuc. "Multi-level Relative Performance Evaluations in Teams", presented at the 2018 Global Management Accounting Research Symposium. |
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Jeremy Douthit and Ashley Sauciuc. "Budget Difficulty and Performance in Unstable Production Environments", presented at the 2017 Management Accounting Midyear Meeting of the AAA. |
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Meiling Zhao, Paul Michas, and Dan Russomanno "The Opportunity for Partner Industry Knowledge Sharing within Audit Offices and Audit Quality." Presented at the 2022 Auditing Section Midyear Meeting and the 2021 Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) Conference. Under review at Review of Accounting Studies. |
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Jeremy Douthit, Kyle (Zhiping) Mao, and Partick Martin. "Tend to One’s Own House: The Effect of Firm CSR on Employee Effort." Paper under review. The paper has been presented at the 2021 Global Management Accounting Research Symposium, Deakin University Workshop, Emory University Workshop, Tilburg University Workshop, University of Pittsburgh Workshop, University of Arizona Internal Workshop, 2021 Western Regional Meeting, 2021 AAA Annual Meeting, and 2021 ABO Midyear Meeting, 2022 MAS Midyear Meeting. |
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Margaret Christ, Jeremy Douthit, and Kyle (Zhiping) Mao. “The Interactive Effect of Management Controls and Production Type on Trust.” |
| Max Hewitt, Kyle (Zhiping) Mao, and Ben Van Landuyt. “Disclosing Earnings Forecast Accuracy: Differential Consequences of Intentional and Unintentional Management Bias.” |
| Mei Cheng, Paul Michas and Meiling Zhao. "Auditor Office Reputation Damage and their Audit Clients' Voluntary Disclosures. Under review at the Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory. |
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Preeti Choudhary, Jake Sigler and Vik Ramadas. "The Implications of IT Environment on the Audit and Financial Reporting Quality". Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, 2021. |
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Jade Chen, Aditi Khatri, Preeti Choudhary, and Shyam Sunder. "Does Verification of Internal Control over Financial Reporting Affect Voluntary Disclosure?". University of Arizona, 2022. |
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Remington Curtis, Matthew Erickson, and Jeff Jiewei Yu, “Intertemporal Tax Discontinuity and Investor Risk-Taking” |
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Mark Yuzhi Yan, Jeff Jiewei Yu, and Chris Zhao, “The Effect of Customer Horizontal Merger on Supplier Voluntary Disclosure” |