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Douglas E. Stevens

Douglas E. Stevens

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Douglas E. Stevens

Professor and James E. and Patricia W. Copeland Deloitte Chair in Accountancy    School of Accountancy

Overview

Education
  • Ph.D., Indiana University
  • M.S.M., Purdue University
  • B.A., Spring Arbor College
Specializations
  • experimental economics
  • budgeting and organizational control
  • trading volume reactions to financial information
  • economic theory and social norms
  • financial statement analysis
  • managerial accounting and control
  • moral foundation for capitalism
Biography

Douglas E. Stevens, Ph.D. is Professor and James E. and Patricia W. Copeland Deloitte Chair of Accountancy in the School of Accountancy at the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. He is also a Fellow at the Center for the Economic Analysis of Risk (CEAR) at RCB and serves as a faculty advisor on the Center for Controllership (CfC) Advisory Group at Deloitte.

Professor Stevens’ research seeks to advance economic theory in managerial accounting, financial accounting, and auditing using experimental and archival data. His managerial accounting research examines organizational control and the merging of social norm theory with the theory of the firm, his financial accounting research examines the effects of financial information on heterogeneous beliefs of investors and financial analysts, and his auditing research examines the effects of social/moral norms on audit quality. His research appears in leading academic journals including The Accounting Review; Contemporary Accounting Research; Accounting, Organizations and Society; Experimental Economics; Journal of Management Accounting Research; Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory; Behavioral Research in Accounting; and Journal of Business Ethics. Professor Stevens has recently published a book at Cambridge University Press entitled, Social Norms and the Theory of the Firm: A Foundational Approach (Stevens 2019).

Publications

Publications
  • “Revising the Theory Behind Corporate Governance and Management Control: A Reflection and Roadmap.” (Management Accounting Research, Special Issue on “Corporate Governance and Management Control,” 2024, Volume 63, June: 100877).
  • “How Far Will Managers Go to Look Like a Good Steward? An Examination of Preferences for Trustworthiness and Honesty in Managerial Reporting,” with Heba Abdel-Rahim and Jeffrey Hales (Contemporary Accounting Research, 2022, Volume 39, Issue 2, pp. 1023-1053).
  • “The Effect of Endogenous Discretionary Control Choice on Budgetary Slack: An Experimental Examination of Trust and Distrust,” with Jeremy Douthit, Steven Schwartz, and Richard Young (Journal of Management Accounting Research, 2022, Volume 34, Issue 3, pp, 99-118).
  • "The Effect of Auditor Identity Disclosure on Audit Quality: An Experimental Examination Incorporating the Incremental Effect of a Signature Requirement," with Allen Blay, Eric Gooden, and Mark Mellon (Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, 2019, Volume 38, Issue 4, pp. 17-29).
  • "The Presence and Effect of the Winner’s Curse in the Market for Audit Services: An Experimental Market Examination," with Jessen Hobson, Robert Marley, and Mark Mellon (Behavioral Research in Accounting, 2019, Volume 31, Issue 2, pp. 73-91).
  • "Can Social Norm Activation Improve Audit Quality? Evidence in an Experimental Audit Market," with Allen Blay, Eric Gooden, and Mark Mellon (Journal of Business Ethics, 2019, Volume 156, Number 2, pp. 513-530).
  • "The Changing Behavior of Trading Volume Reactions to Earnings Announcements: Evidence of the Increasing Use of Accounting Earnings News by Investors," with Orie Barron and Richard Schneible, Jr. (Contemporary Accounting Research, 2018, Volume 35, Number 4, pp. 1651-1674).
  • "Information System Precision and Honesty in Managerial Reporting: A Reexamination of Information Asymmetry Effects," with Heba Abdel-Rahim (Accounting, Organizations and Society, 2018, Volume 64, pp. 31-43).
  • "The Usefulness of Social Norm Theory in Empirical Business Ethics Research: A Review and Suggestions for Future Research," with Allen Blay, Eric Gooden, and Mark Mellon (Journal of Business Ethics, 2018, Volume 152, Number 1, pp.
    191-206).
  • "The Effect of High Power Financial Incentives on Excessive Risk-Taking Behavior: An Experimental Examination," with Alisa Brink and Jessen Hobson (Journal of Management Accounting Research, 2017, Volume 29, Number 1, pp. 13-29
  • "The Robustness of Honesty Effects on Budget Proposals when the Superior has Rejection Authority," with Jeremy Douthit (The Accounting Review, 2015, Volume 90, Number 2, pp. 467-493).
  • "Can a Code of Ethics Improve Manager Behavior and Investor Confidence? An Experimental Study," with Bruce Davidson (The Accounting Review, 2013, Volume 88, Number 1, pp. 51-74).
  • "Can Agent Cheap Talk Mitigate Agency Problems in the Presence of a Noisy Performance Measure? An Experimental Test in a Single- and Multi-Period Setting," with Jeremy Douthit and Linwood Kearney (Journal of Management Accounting Research, 2012, Volume 24, pp. 135-158).
  • "Trading Volume around Earnings Announcements and Other Financial Reports: Theory, Research Design, Empirical Evidence, and Directions for Future Research," with Linda Bamber and Orie Barron (Contemporary Accounting Research, 2011, Volume 28, Number 2, pp. 431-471).
  • "Determinants of Moral Judgments Regarding Budgetary Slack: An Experimental Examination of Pay Scheme and Personal Values," with Jessen Hobson and Mark Mellon (Behavioral Research in Accounting, 2011, Volume 23, Number 1, pp. 87-107).
  • "A Moral Solution to the Moral Hazard Problem," with Alex Thevaranjan (Accounting, Organizations and Society, 2010, Volume 35, Issue 1, pp. 125-139).
  • "Earnings Characteristics and Analysts’ Differential Interpretation of Earnings Announcements: An Empirical Analysis," with Anwer Ahmed and Minsup Song. (Accounting & Finance, 2009, Volume 49, Issue 2, pp. 223-246).
  • "Public and Private Forms of Opportunism within the Organization: A Joint Examination of Budget and Effort Behavior," with Jeff Schatzberg (Journal of Management Accounting Research, 2008, Volume 20, pp. 59-81).
  • "Inefficiency in Earnings Forecasts: Experimental Evidence of Reactions to Positive vs. Negative Information," with Arlie Williams (Experimental Economics, 2004, Volume 7, Number 1, pp. 75-92.).
  • "An Empirical Analysis of the Effects of Online Trading on Stock Price and Trading Volume Reactions to Earnings Announcements," with Anwer Ahmed and Richard Schneible Jr. (Contemporary Accounting Research, 2003, Volume20, Number 3, pp. 413-439).
  • "The Effects of Reputation and Ethics on Budgetary Slack" (Journal of Management Accounting Research, 2002, Volume 14, pp. 153-171).
  • "Price and Volume Reactions to Public Information Releases: An Experimental Approach Incorporating Traders’ Subjective Beliefs," with Ann Gillette, Susan Watts, and Arlington Williams (Contemporary Accounting Research, 1999, Volume 16, Number 3, pp. 437-479).
  • "Using Analysts’ Forecasts to Measure Properties of Analysts’ Information Environment," with Orie Barron, Oliver Kim, and Steve Lim (The Accounting Review, 1998, Volume 73, Number 4, pp. 421-433)

Books