Academic Director of Healthcare Programming
Ph.D. Area Advisor
The first MBA application deadline is October 9.
Accounting Research involves the systematic and scientific study of accounting systems, institutions, standards and regulations for the purpose of understanding and characterizing their decision-facilitating and decision-influencing roles within organizations, in product and capital markets, and across economies. For instance, financial reporting systems play many roles in publicly held organizations characterized by separation of ownership from control. They help investors in valuing their claims to firms in financial markets (valuation role), are essential for corporate control and managerial performance evaluation (auditing, governance and stewardship roles), and impact how firms allocate their resources and make financial decisions (real effects). In a similar vein, management accounting systems facilitate planning and control within organizations. Often, these many roles of accounting information interact, posing challenges for system designers, policy makers, and standard setters.
The main goal of the accounting doctoral program is to train students to do high-quality research, and become influential scholars in top academic institutions. The accounting group has world-class senior faculty and young, talented scholars with considerable expertise in the above topics and a vibrant research environment. In addition, the program leverages the resources and excellence of Rice University in related fields such as finance, economics and statistics. Students will be required to take courses in economics, statistics, econometrics, finance, and a rigorous set of cutting-edge research seminars covering the essentials in theory, research methods, and contemporary accounting issues.
Rice Business offers an outstanding program for doctoral students interested in accounting.
Overview of Accounting Ph.D. Seminar Series
Introduction to Accounting Research
The course offers a thorough and broad-ranging introduction to accounting theory and research. It covers origins and evolution of key relevant accounting institutions, thought, paradigms and methods.
Analytical Research
The course provides a thorough and comprehensive introduction into the key economic theories underlying a significant part of contemporary cutting edge accounting research. The course is designed to be sufficiently deep to support both students intent on pursuing analytical research and at the same time broad enough that students with an empirical orientation will gain a solid foundation.
Empirical Research in Accounting
The course provides a thorough and comprehensive synthesis of empirical accounting research, covering the key “classic” papers in the major research areas, methodological issues and emerging areas within empirical accounting research.
Advanced Contemporary Accounting Research
The course provides a more advanced treatment of cutting edge, predominantly empirical accounting research. Accordingly, the course content is expected to change frequently to reflect the current state of accounting research.
For doctoral students who have chosen accounting as their area, the Ph.D. degree requirements are as follows.
Summer before the beginning of first semester
Quantitative Methods Review
Year 1 (Fall)
ECON 501Microeconomic Theory I
ECON 510 Econometrics I
BUSI 530Introduction to Accounting Research
Workshop in Statistical Computing and Research
Elective
Year 1 (Spring)
ECON 508 Microeconomics II
BUSI 532Analytical Research in Accounting
BUSI 533 Contemporary Accounting Research Topics
Workshop in Statistical Computing and Research
Elective
Year 2 (Fall)
BUSI 531 Empirical Methods in Accounting
BUSI 523Empirical Methods in Finance
Elective
Elective
Year 2 (Spring)
BUSI 532 Analytical Research in Accounting (suggested retake)
BUSI 533 Contemporary Accounting Research Topics (suggested retake)
Elective
Elective
Doctoral students may continue taking graduate-level accounting courses beyond their second year as well. Examples of elective courses are:
General:
ECON 435: Industrial Organization
ECON 511: Econometrics II
ECON 514 Industrial Organization and Control
ECON 517 Empirical Industrial Organization
Analytical Track:
BUSI 510 Analytical Models in Marketing
ECON 502 Macroeconomics
ECON 505 Financial Economics
ECON 509 Topics in Microeconomics
ECON 575 Topics in Financial Economics
MATH 321 Introduction to Analysis I
MATH 515 Integration Theory
STAT 581 Mathematical Probability
STAT 552 Applied Stochastic Processes
Empirical Track:
BUSI 522 Corporate Finance
BUSI 511 Select Topics in Marketing
BUSI 524 Finance Special Topics
BUSI 527 Finance Special Topics
ECON 309 Applied Econometrics
ECON 578 Topics in Econometrics I
ECON 579 Topics in Econometrics II: Time Series Analysis
STAT 519 Statistical Inference
STAT 541 Multivariate Analysis