Sean Wang

Sean Wang is a Visiting Professor of Accounting at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University. His research examines information economics in capital markets — how information is produced, measured, and distorted — with particular attention to hard-to-measure assets such as knowledge-and reputation-based intangible capital. His prior work has examined price discovery, investor attention, and transparency and measurement in financial reporting. Wang earned degrees in chemistry (B.A., Duke University; M.A., University of South Florida) before turning to economics-based research, completing an M.B.A. in finance at New York University's Stern School of Business and a Ph.D. in accounting at Cornell University; that scientific grounding shapes a research program built on careful measurement and identification.

Wang's work has been published in leading journals including the Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Financial Economics, The Accounting Review,  and Management Science. His research on intangible capital is used by researchers and practitioners, including in Morgan Stanley Investment Management research, and has been covered by The Economist, the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Harvard Business Review. His research has been presented at more than 90 universities and conferences, including the NBER and AFA annual meetings. He reviews for many of the field's leading accounting and finance journals and has served as a track chair for the American Accounting Association Annual Meeting and the Hawaii Accounting Research Conference, as well as on the external review committee for the Bretton Woods Ski Conference.

Wang teaches financial accounting, valuation, and financial statement analysis across the full range of degree programs — full-time, professional, and executive MBA, Master of Accounting, Master of Finance, and undergraduate — and has served on doctoral committees for students in accounting and finance who have gone on to place at schools such as the University of Michigan and Penn State.