Michelle Hanlon

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Michelle Hanlon

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Michelle Hanlon is the Howard W. Johnson Professor, a Professor of Accounting, and Deputy Dean for Faculty and Research at the MIT Sloan School of Management

Hanlon’s primary teaching at Sloan is the Taxes and Business Strategy class. She has won the Jamieson Prize for Excellence in Teaching, the MIT Sloan MBA Outstanding Teaching Award, and the MIT Teaching with Digital Technology Award.  She has also taught introductory and intermediate financial accounting during her career.

Her research focuses primarily on taxation and the intersection of taxation and financial accounting. Much of her research examines corporate taxation and decision making, the effect of taxes on mergers and acquisitions, corporate tax avoidance and the reputational effects of tax avoidance, the economic consequences of U.S. international tax policies, book-tax conformity, and other topics.  She has won numerous awards for her research including the Distinguished Contribution to the Accounting Literature Award from the American Accounting Association, the Outstanding Manuscript Award from the American Taxation Association (three times), and being named a Presidential Scholar of the American Accounting Association.

Hanlon served as an editor at one of the leading accounting research journals for fifteen years. She is a coauthor on three textbooks: 1) Financial Accounting, 2) Taxes and Business Strategy, and 3) Intermediate Accounting (all published by Cambridge Business Publishers).

 Hanlon has testified in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance and the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means regarding U.S. tax policy (twice to both committees). She worked as an Academic Fellow for the U.S. House Ways and Means (majority) tax staff (2015).

 Hanlon holds a BBA from Eastern Illinois University, an MAcc from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and a PhD from the University of Washington.

 

Honors

Hanlon wins teaching award

July 31, 2020

Hanlon wins Outstanding Teacher Award for 2021

Hanlon wins accounting honor

Hanlon and Shroff win American Tax Association award

American Accounting Association designates Hanlon as Presidential Scholar

Publications

"Seeing Green: The Effects of Financial Exposures on Support for Climate Action."

Hanlon, Michelle, Saumitra Jha, Namrata Kala, Nemit Shroff, and Chagai M. Weiss, Working Paper. February 2026. NBER Working Paper No. 34828.

"The Pharmaceutical Industry: Effective Tax Rates Before and After the TCJA."

Michelle Hanlon and Jeffrey L. Hoopes. Falls Church, VA: December 2024.

"The Effect of Innovation Box Regimes on Investment and Employment Activity."

Chen, Shannon, Lisa De Simone, Michelle Hanlon, and Rebecca Lester. The Accounting Review Vol. 98, No. 5 (2023): 187-214.

"​​The Use of Financial Accounting Information in the OECD BEPS 2.0 Project: A Discussion of the Rules and Concerns."

Hanlon, Michelle, and Michelle Nessa. National Tax Journal Vol. 76, No. 1 (2023): 193-232. SSRN Preprint.

Financial Accounting.

Dyckman, Thomas R., Michelle Hanlon, Robert P. Magee, and Glenn M. Pfeiffer. Chicago, IL: Cambridge Business Publishers, 2023.

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How to get the public invested in climate change solutions

New research from MIT Sloan School of Management finds that financial incentives can motivate learning and support for climate mitigation policies

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Ideas Made to Matter

Trading energy stocks turns skeptics into supporters of climate action

Even on a small scall, the opportunity to trade energy stocks can boost financial literacy and motivate people to learn more about climate change, MIT Sloan research finds.

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Media Highlights

Press The Wall Street Journal

Trump's tax cuts are exposing companies to Biden's tax hike

The corporate alternative minimum tax (CAMT) was designed to be a floor so that large, profitable companies had to pay something. Many tax experts worry that it is too complicated and relies on accounting definitions of income that don't necessarily work well for tax law. "It's working like it's supposed to work," said professor Michelle Hanlon. "It's just a bad law."

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Press WalletHub

What is a budget?

Deputy dean for faculty and research, Michelle Hanlon said:  "Do not try to keep up with your friends and neighbors in terms of spending. Some of them might be deep in debt! Stay focused and live within your own budget."

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