Research Seminar in Financial Reporting, Capital Markets, and Corporate Governance

HBSDOC 4255 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

The course is designed for Ph.D. students in accounting and related fields. Its primary objective is to advance your understanding of how to conduct empirical research in financial accounting. Throughout the course, we will discuss several important research topics on the effects of disclosure and reporting, including its regulation and the institutions surrounding it. For each topic, we will discuss underlying theory, research design, econometric techniques, and data issues. A key focus of this research seminar will be to develop your ability to identify and assess research questions, understand and analyze theoretical concepts, build rigorous hypotheses and understand the underlying tensions in the arguments.  We will also review a variety of empirical research methods at a conceptual level. The objective is for students to learn how to design a set of rigorous empirical tests for a given research question and set of hypotheses. Students will be assigned papers with the task of analyzing it, critiquing it, and discussing ideas for future research in various areas.