The 22nd Haskell & White Corporate Reporting and Governance academic conference took place on Sept. 18 at the Cal State Fullerton College of Business and Economics. Co-hosted by the School of Accountancy and the Department of Finance, the event brought together scholars from around the world to share research on artificial intelligence (AI), accounting careers, Wall Street analysts and regulation.

“This annual conference demonstrates the research powerhouse that the School of Accountancy and business college at CSUF truly is,” says Vivek Mande, director of the school and co-director of the Center for Corporate Reporting and Governance (CCRG), which organizes the event. “This year, we brought together leading scholars to share the latest research on topics ranging from AI and the accounting talent shortage to regulation and Wall Street analysts, bridging research and practice. This testifies to how strong we are as an accounting academic hub on the West Coast.”

“The Haskell & White Conference is a great example of how accounting and finance research inform each other,” says Mehmet Akbulut, chair of the Department of Finance, which co-hosts the conference with the School of Accountancy. “This year’s papers on sell-side analysts, mutual fund managers and AI-assisted valuation speak directly to questions our finance students will face in their careers. Bringing scholars of this caliber to campus gives our faculty and students a front-row seat to that work.”

Did Regulation Shrink the Accounting Talent Pipeline?

Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 to strengthen auditor independence after a wave of corporate accounting scandals. Keynote speaker Joanna Wu, professor at the University of Rochester and editor of the Journal of Accounting and Economics, examined an unintended consequence of the law in her recently published study, “Independence at What Cost? Regulation, Accounting Careers, and Human Capital.”

The rules came with a price. Wu and her co-authors found that the law narrowed accountants’ career paths by limiting moves into consulting and to client companies. Accountants’ wages declined, and fewer top students chose to major in accounting.

Their work reveals an overlooked cost of regulation, one that may help explain today’s shortage of accounting talent and that policymakers may want to weigh when designing future rules.

Does AI Sharpen or Replace Human Judgment?

As generative AI moves into finance and accounting work, a pressing question is whether it makes professionals sharper or simply hands them answers. Miao Liu, professor at Boston College, presented “Human–AI Collaboration in Corporate Valuation: Experimental Evidence with a Valuation AI Agent.” He and his co-authors built an AI agent that reads companies’ financial filings, then had business students use it to value real firms.

The amount of help mattered. AI-built dashboards helped students produce richer analysis of their own, but when the AI also offered its own valuation, students tended to anchor on its number. Students with stronger financial statement analysis skills benefited most.

The findings carry a timely message for employers and educators. AI may work best as a partner that organizes information, while strong accounting and finance skills help people make the call.

Best Paper: Does Academic Research Reach Wall Street?

Universities produce a steady stream of research on what drives stock returns, but it is less clear whether that work reaches the professionals who advise investors. The Best Paper Award, announced by Wayne Pinnell, managing partner of Haskell & White, went to Jiawen Yan, professor at the National University of Singapore, and his co-authors for their paper, “Does Wall Street Learn from Academic Research? Evidence from Sell-Side Analysts.”

It does. Studying more than 2.1 million analyst reports, the authors found that Wall Street analysts mention findings from academic research nearly twice as often after it is published. Analysts who use that research make more accurate earnings forecasts and are more likely to be voted All-Stars.

The study shows that academic research has real value beyond academia: it helps analysts do their jobs better and gives investors better information.

About the Haskell & White Conference and CCRG

Now a tradition spanning more than two decades, the Haskell & White Conference is one of two major accounting events held at Cal State Fullerton. Hundreds of professionals and policymakers also attended the SEC “Hot Topics” Conference, which was held on Sept. 25.

For more on corporate reporting and governance research and events, read our articles on CCRG.