Ph.D. Program

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.