Financial Accounting Standards Research Initiative

Undergrads are nitpicked about their citations. MLA, Chicago, etc. Must be perfectly consistent. You will lose points for every missing comma or period. Unfortunately, this is not a skill I became proficient at. In fact, without the help of Google I couldn’t tell you the difference between MLA and Chicago formats. When I started a PhD [...] Read more > >

I am happy to report that I just finished my first semester of the PhD program, including the dreaded “Microeconomics for Econ PhDs.” As I look back on the semester, I thought, why micro? Why is microeconomics so important for accounting researchers that almost every PhD student is required to take it in their first semester. [...] Read more > >

In a paper just posted on SSRN, Cornell PhD student Young-Jun Cho and I assess the performance of a stock market called SLCapex.  From the abstract: SLCapex is a stock exchange owned and operated by “residents” of the online virtual world Second Life. Despite its almost complete lack of regulation and legal protections against fraud or [...] Read more > >

I recently read a paper that to most of you is old hat: Kachelmeier, 1996 CAR. When I pulled it up I thought maybe I had the wrong article. I mean, Tax Advice, what does that have to do with financial reporting research. As I started reading the paper though, I realized why Rob had [...] Read more > >

Oh how time flies. Just over a year ago I took the GMAT. While I spent a good deal of time preparing for the GMAT, I think I spent at least as much time trying to figure out where I wanted my GMAT scores to be sent. That was one of the most difficult parts of [...] Read more > >

I know all my recent posts seem to be arising from my PhD seminar.  But hey, putting together materials for an introductory seminar makes one think about some basic research issues. One paper I assign is the Watts and Zimmerman excuses paper.  In case you are unfamiliar with the paper, I view it as presenting a [...] Read more > >

I recently read a paper in The Accounting Review (Vol 85, No. 2) titled “Correcting for Cross-Sectional and Time-Series Dependence in Accounting Research” by Ian Gow, Gaizka Ormazabal, and Daniel Taylor. The paper deals with how to adjust for clustering across two dimensions (normally firm and year). After reading the paper I was was curious how [...] Read more > >

As most FASRI followers are aware, the IASB and FASB are revising their Conceptual Frameworks.  The new and old frameworks posit that relevance of information for making decisions is a key attribute for determining if a particular number should be included in financial reports. I recently attended a presentation of a research paper by [...] Read more > >

As I’ve been preparing to enter a PhD program, several professors have recommended that I find an “area of expertise” such as statistics, datasets, writing, experimental design, SAS, etc. Obviously there are a lot of factors that go into this decision, the first of which probably being what I enjoy most and the second being what [...] Read more > >

In a May 2010 Harvard Business Review article, Dana Carney (assistant professor at Columbia University) answers questions about her research that examines the relationship between a sense of power and the ability to deceive others. Although I highly recommend reading the actual paper (which is very well written, I might add), let me summarize the basics [...] Read more > >