Primary research questions of interest are the relation between accounting disclosures and security prices, undertaken within market equilibrium models, and the role of accounting information in mitigating incentive problems within firms, generally formulated within principal-agent models. Other economic models are employed as well.
Analytical research demands high-level training in economic theory, statistics, and mathematics.
Q. Chen, C. Levine, and M. Smith. The goals of behavioral research in accounting include understanding, evaluating, and improving accounting-related judgments and decisions. Training in economics and other behavioral sciences, as well as in experimental design and statistics, is required. Empirical-archival Empirical researchers rely on economic theory to study, among other things, the valuation implications of accounting disclosures, executive compensation and other corporate governance issues, and financial intermediary reporting choices and forecasting behavior. Empiricists use commercially available and proprietary databases to test hypotheses within a statistical framework and must be well-trained in economic theory and statistical methods.