Accounting

Accounting Group

The MIT Sloan Accounting Group conducts influential research on how information shapes economic decisions inside firms, in financial markets, and in public policy. Faculty examine how accounting systems, disclosure, auditing, taxation, and regulation influence the behavior of managers, investors, organizations, and governments—and how trust in information is created, maintained, and sometimes undermined.

Rather than studying accounting as a narrow reporting function, our faculty approach it as a central part of how modern economies operate. Their research explores questions such as: 

  • What information helps markets function well? 
  • How do transparency and incentives affect corporate behavior and innovation? 
  • When do regulation and oversight improve outcomes, and when do they create unintended consequences? 
  • How are new technologies, including artificial intelligence, changing the production, verification, and use of information?

MIT Sloan accounting faculty publish in the field’s leading journals in accounting, finance, and economics. The faculty also shape the direction of accounting research through editorial leadership and service across top scholarly outlets. Their work regularly informs academics, companies, investors, standard setters, regulators, and policymakers around the world.

Select Awards and Honors

MIT Sloan accounting faculty publish in the field’s leading journals in accounting, finance, and economics. The faculty also shape the direction of accounting research through editorial leadership and service across top scholarly outlets. Their work regularly informs academics, companies, investors, standard setters, regulators, and policymakers around the world.

  • Michelle Hanlon won the 2020 Distinguished Contributions to Accounting Literature Award from the American Accounting Association. This annual reward recognizes “uniqueness and magnitude of contribution to accounting education, practice and/or future accounting research” from among works published 5-15 years prior. Hanlon’s winning paper, co-authored with Scott D. Dyreng (Duke Fuqua) and Edward L. Maydew (UNC Kenan-Flagler), is entitled “Long-Run Corporate Tax Avoidance” (The Accounting Review, Vol. 83, No. 1, Jan. 2008).
  • Andrew Sutherland  (Ford International Career Development Associate Professor of Accounting) won the Best Archival Paper Award from the American Accounting Association’s Auditing Section 2020 Midyear Meeting, for the best conference paper using archival research methods. Sutherland’s winning paper, co-authored with Jonathan Cook (Public Company Accounting Oversight Board), Zachary Kowaleski (University of Notre Dame), Michael Minnis (University of Chicago−Booth), and Karla M. Zehms (University of Wisconsin−Madison), is entitled, “Auditors are Known by the Companies They Keep.” 
  • Rodrigo Verdi received an Outstanding Teacher Award at the 2022 MIT Sloan Excellence in Teaching Awards. Each year, students nominate instructors for these teaching awards and the final recipients are chosen based on the quantity and quality of their nominations.