Research

Faculty in the Smeal Accounting Department are engaged in a robust range of research topics. The following are examples of current faculty research interests:

• Alternative Accounting Standards: Research examines how management communicates with investors and provides evidence on how amounts are calculated under alternative accounting standards.
• Analysts' Forecasts: Research examines analysts' forecasts to better understand investor behavior and information used in investment decisions.
• Accounting Disclosures for Capital Markets: Research examines accounting information that is disclosed to and utilized by capital market participants.
• Management Disclosure Incentives: Research examines managers' incentives for disclosing accounting information so that one may properly interpret the information.
• Insider Trading: Research examines disclosure rules that affect the trading behavior of corporate insiders who have private information about the value of the firm that employs them.
• Auditors' Opinion Decisions: Research examines auditors' opinion decisions in the presence of financial stress.
• Auditing as a Socially Constructed and Influenced Process: Research examines the concepts derived from sociology, organizational theory, and philosophy of science that focus on understanding what professional endeavor and expertise mean.
• Employee Stock Options: Research examines the financial reporting, taxation, compensation, and valuation aspects of employee stock options, and relationships among employee exercise events and economic factors, tax factors, and psychological factors.
• The Effects of Regulation on Financial Institutions' Decisions: Research examines the effects of taxes, financial accounting, and capital regulation on financial institutions' decisions.
• Investment Management: Research examines effects of trading decisions.
• Tax Policy: Research examines the effects of changes in the corporate tax system.