“Welcome to the UCLA Anderson accounting area. Our Ph.D. program offers rigorous training in empirical and theoretical methods to prepare our students for success as faculty at top research-oriented business schools worldwide. We enroll a small number of students, which allows faculty to work closely with each student. Faculty-student collaboration on research is particularly important, and has resulted in several co-authored publications in peer-reviewed journals. Our placement record is strong, with recent graduates moving on to the tenure track at prestigious research universities, including UC Berkeley, Northwestern and Yale.”
Henry Friedman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Accounting
Daniel Aobdia (’12)
Initial Placement: Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
Dissertation: Sharing Suppliers and Information Spillovers: The Case of the Auditor
Daniel Aobdia studies the effects of disclosure on the functioning of capital and product markets. He has co-authored articles published in Accounting Review and Review of Accounting Studies, most recently, “Proprietary Information Spillovers and Supplier Choice: Evidence from Auditors.” His research won him the award for best mid-year meeting paper at the American Accounting Association and he is a senior economic research fellow in the Center for Economic Analysis at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB).
Elizabeth Gutiérrez (’12)
Initial Placement: Florida International University
Dissertation: Evidence on the Role of Accounting Conservatism in Debt Contracting
Elizabeth Gutierrez's areas of interest include financial accounting, financial market regulation, IFRS, auditor reporting, debt contracts, and insider trading. Most studies about insider trading are focused on the firm, but Gutierrez's empirical research takes a macro view, shedding light on the information inside traders use to make strategic decisions for investment.
Omri Even-Tov (’15)
Initial Placement: Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley
Dissertation: Can the Bond Price Reaction to Earnings Announcements Predict Future Stock Returns?
Since graduating UCLA Anderson in 2015, Omri Even-Tov has worked with the Haas Accounting Group, focusing his interests on corporate debt, unsuccessful mergers and acquisitions, and the relation between accounting information, bond returns, and stock returns. His paper, "When does the Bond Price Reaction to Earnings Announcements Predict Future Stock Returns?," was published in the Journal of Accounting and Economics in August 2017. He has also won the Earl F. Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching, MBA Program for 2016 to 2017.
Ruihao Ke (’12)
Initial Placement: Cox School of Business, Southern Methodist University
Dissertation: Earnings Quality and Financial Distress Prediction
Dissertation: "Earnings Quality and Financial Distress Prediction" Ruihao Ke's dissertation examines how the quality of financial statements affects their usefulness in the debt market - in particular, whether high quality financial statements can help users more accurately predict financial stress. The study shows how high-quality accounting numbers improve several popular distress prediction models. Ke's research, "Social Connections with Executive Teams and Management Forecasts," will soon be published in Management Science.
Ben Lourie (’15)
Initial Placement: Paul Merage School of Business, U.C. Irvine
Dissertation: The Revolving-Door of Sell-Side Analysts: A Threat to Analysts’ Independence?
Ben Lourie's interests include financial analysts, market efficiency and financial accounting. His dissertation asked whether the "revolving-door" phenomenon, whereby analysts are hired by firms that they cover, poses a threat to their independence. His findings that pointed to a potential benefit to tightening employment regulations in the industry received media attention from Financial Times, Bloomberg and Business Insider.
Tsahi Versano (’11)
Initial Placement: Yale University
Dissertation: Discretionary Disclosure in Agencies
Recently, Tsahi Versano was a lecturer at the accounting department of Coller School of Management. Versano's research interests focus on the economic role of information in the business environment, disclosure decisions of managers, accounting regulation, and agency theory. His recent research focuses on the strategic disclosure of information by managers, the costs and benefits of regulating disclosure, and the optimal design of incentive contracts and organizational structures. Before attending UCLA Anderson, Versano was an assurance and transaction services manager at KPMG Israel.
Mingshan Zhang (’05)
Initial Placement: Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
Dissertation: Three Essays in Accounting
Mingshan Zhang's research interests include valuation and empirical capital market research. Her work has appeared in Journal of Accounting Research.