The Economics of Accounting

Richard Frankel is Nicholas Dopuch Professor of Accounting at Washington University in St. Louis. Professor Frankel has taught at Washington University in St. Louis since 2005. Prior to that, he was a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the University of Michigan. At Michigan and MIT, he received the MBA Student Awards for Teaching Excellence. His principal teaching interest is financial accounting and reporting. His research focuses on valuation using accounting numbers and on corporate managers' use of conference calls, earnings forecasts, and pro-forma earnings. S.P. Kothari is Gordon Y Billard Professor of Accounting and Finance at MIT's Sloan School of Management. He has senior executive experience in government, academia, and industry with expertise in strategic and policy issues, securities regulation, and corporate governance. Most recently, he was Chief Economist and Director of the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis at the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Previously, Kothari was deputy dean of MIT Sloan School of Management, global head of equity research for Barclays Global Investors; and director of Bombay Stock Exchange; currently he is a director of Velan Studios and EbixCash. Kothari was awarded India's Padma Shri and Honorary Doctorates from London Business School, University of Cyprus, and University of Technology, Sydney. Luo Zuo is the Provost's Chair Professor of Accounting and Finance at National University of Singapore (NUS).Professor Zuo received his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2013, after which he joined Cornell University. At Cornell University, he was granted tenure in 2017 and promoted to full professor in 2022. Professor Zuo holds several editorial positions at top academic journals. He is an Editor of The Accounting Review, an Associate Editor of Management Scienceand the Journal of Accounting and Economics, and an editorial board member of Review of Accounting Studies. Professor Zuo has also held various leadership positions in academicprograms and professional associations. He served as the Faculty Director of the Cornell-Tsinghua Finance MBAProgram and the Faculty Lead of the Cornell-HKUST Partnership. He currently serves as the Director of the PhDProgram in Accounting at NUS and the President of the Chinese Accounting Professors' Association of North Professor Zuo has received numerous research and teaching awards, including the Cornell-Tsinghua Finance MBAProgram Best Teaching Award, the University of Toronto Roger Martin Award for Emerging Leaders, the Journal ofAccounting Research Excellence in Refereeing Award, the American Accounting Association FARS OutstandingDiscussion Award, the Johnson School Accelerated MBA Core Faculty Award, and the Johnson School FacultyResearch Award. His research has been featured in The Economist, The NBER Digest, The Wall Street Journal, and many other media outlets.

Preface

Chapter 1: An Economic Framework of Accounting

Chapter 2: Accounting Earnings and Stock Prices

Chapter 3: The Earnings-Return Relation

Chapter 4: The Economics of Accounting Earnings

Appendix: The Shareholder Value Maximization Principle