Accounting

About Our Accounting Faculty And Research

Our accounting faculty are trailblazing scholars who have made major contributions to accounting research and pedagogy. Their passion for educating future leaders — that means you — is apparent in their classrooms and frequently recognized by teaching awards.

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Featured Research

"My research centers on financial reporting, regulation and corporate governance in financial institutions such as commercial and investment banks. The significance of regulation in the financial services industry is staggering. The response to heightened regulations by managers, regulators, auditors and investors differs because their incentives are often not perfectly aligned. I’m curious about what happens when those incentives diverge and what impact it might have on real decisions and financial reporting." - Hailey Ballew, Assistant Professor of Accounting

About Us

At the 2007 American Accounting Association’s Annual Meeting, a renowned archeologist, Denise Schmandt-Besserat, said that global business would have never flourished but for double-entry accounting and the needed credible recordkeeping that goes with it. Her research is argued to show that civilization began with double-entry accounting, and writing began with the needed recordkeeping to capture debts and promises. The idea is that without an ability to keep track of promises of future performance, inter-temporal exchanges could never happen, without which commerce would have been stifled.

While I am paraphrasing, accounting scholarship has played a key role in understanding the way the business world operates. My colleagues at the Jones School have played and continue to play an important role in developing our common understanding of capital markets, business contracting and agency relationships and how accounting helps shape them.

One of the initiatives we are particularly excited about is the Master of Accounting (MAcc) program, which features world-class accounting faculty and a curriculum designed for students with non-business undergraduate academic background. You can learn more about the MAcc program online.

I am very proud to say that I am part of a group of trailblazing senior scholars who have made major contributions to accounting research and pedagogy, balanced by vibrant, next-generation-scholars who will reach even greater heights. My colleagues include:

A member of the Accounting Hall of Fame
A current editor of two of the top-3 accounting research journals
A recipient of academe’s research impact award for management accounting practice

My colleagues’ teaching accomplishments are extraordinary. Their passion for educating the future leaders of a premier business school and a world-class research university is frequently recognized by teaching awards at the Jones School’s annual investiture. Who would have guessed that debits and credits can be that inspiring!

As you become part of the Jones School and Rice University, I urge you to visit with my colleagues and learn more about their research agenda and teaching interests. It would be worth your time.

Sincerely,
K. Ramesh
Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Accounting

Top Accounting Electives

These popular courses help students understand the way the business world operates.

This course builds on earlier courses on cost management and corporate strategy and focuses on the management control systems that can be used for the effective implementation of strategy. Included topics are the balanced scorecard, stretch budgets, performance evaluation and incentives, organizational and operational controls, and the development of metrics to motivate and evaluate performance.
Topics in this course include accounting for dilutive securities and stock-based compensation; recognition and de-recognition of investments, leases, deferred taxes, and pension and other post-retirement obligations; and advanced topics on inter-corporate investment accounting. Codification research will be integrated throughout course, along with a comparison of U.S. GAAP and IFRS.
Study of how investors, financial analysts, creditors, and managers use financial statement information in evaluating firm performance and in valuing firms. Emphasizes industry and firm-level analysis of accounting information using financial accounting concepts and finance theory.
The purpose of the course is to prepare the future CPA for ethical judgment. Course materials emphasize ethical reasoning and giving voice to values; principles of integrity, objectivity, independence (in fact and appearance) and avoidance of intentional misrepresentation of facts; the role of core values in a dynamically changing global economy; and professional and ethical issues in accounting practice.
This course examines fair value accounting, as outlined in Accounting Standard Codification section 820 and other U.S. accounting standards, as well as the use of third-party pricing services, credit risk considerations and recent accounting updates impacting the valuation of various financial instruments, such as loans, equities, department securities, alternative investments, real estate investments and liabilities.
The course examines the concepts of the integrated audit of internal control over financial reporting in accordance with PCAOB Audit Standard 5. It also covers fundamental procedures used in financial statement audits, specifically in the client acceptance and continuance, planning and risk assessment, and audit comfort cycle phases of the engagement.
This course provides students with an in-depth understanding of professional standards, the audit process, advanced auditing techniques and the auditor’s role. The course will use case studies to explore audit topics not extensively covered in a typical intro-auditing course, including planning/risk assessment, design and execution of procedures, testing techniques, and software tools.
The course offers an introduction to federal income tax principles with an emphasis on general skills in identifying and resolving tax issues, understanding the administrative and public policy and reasoning underlying tax law choices and integrating the tax laws into business and personal decisions and planning. It also covers taxation of C-corporations, S-corporations and partnerships.
This course is an examination of how taxes affect companies' decision-making and their financial and operational structure.