Evaluation of accounting methods, financial information and stock market disclosures

Paul A. Griffin, professor of management in the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, is a leading international authority in accounting and financial information and disclosures. He has advised companies and governments on accounting and tax issues for the past 25 years. He has also published more than 55 articles in leading accounting and finance journals, four research monographs for the Financial Accounting Standards Board, and two casebooks on U.S. corporate financial reporting. His current research projects examine relations between stock prices and sustainability disclosures, among other topics.  He serves as co-editor of “Accounting Horizons.” Contact: Paul A. Griffin, Graduate School of Management, (530) 752-7372, pagriffin@ucdavis.edu.

Financial reporting 

Michelle Yetman, associate professor of management in the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, researches financial reporting quality, governance and taxation with a special interest in the nonprofit setting. Her research has been published in the Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, National Tax Journal, Management Science, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, and the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy. She teaches the core MBA course in financial accounting, as well as an accounting for non-financial managers course in the UC Davis Wine Executive Program. She is a certified public accountant in Texas. Contact: Michelle Yetman, Graduate School of Management, (530) 754-7808,  mhyetman@ucdavis.edu.

Tax law and policy

Dennis J. Ventry, Jr. is a professor at UC Davis School of Law. He is an expert in tax policy, tax administration and compliance, legal and professional ethics, and U.S. economic and legal history. He is regularly cited in both the tax press and popular media for his expertise on the effects of taxation on the U.S. economy and society. His articles include: “Misinformed and Misled About the Benefits of the Mortgage Interest Deduction,” in Cityscape (2014) (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2407725); “The Fake Third Rail of Tax Reform” in Tax Notes (2011) (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2038638); and “Americans Don’t Hate Taxes, They Hate Paying Taxes,” in U.B.C. L. Rev. (2011), (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1800164). Contact: Dennis J. Ventry, School of Law, (530) 752-4566, djventry@ucdavis.edu.
 

Response of nonprofit organizations to economic incentives

Robert Yetman, professor of management at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, is an expert on corporate tax, financial accounting, income tax, U.S. and international financial accounting, and nonprofit accounting and tax issues. His research concentrates on the effect of taxes on business decisions and the response of nonprofit organizations to economic incentives. Yetman recently examined why some tax-exempt charities choose to be taxed on their unrelated business income, and how such behavior is not always driven by the desire to maximize profits. He has lectured on cost accounting at executive education programs for wine industry professionals. Contact: Robert Yetman, Graduate School of Management, (530) 752-3571, rjyetman@ucdavis.edu.

Tax-based safety-net programs and the inter-generational transmission of poverty

Ann Huff Stevens is professor and chair of the Department of Economics and director of the Center for Poverty Research at UC Davis. She studies low-income workers and labor markets, the incidence and effects of job loss, connections between economic shocks and health, and poverty and safety-net dynamics. Stevens’ current research includes studies of the relationship between job loss and health, the relationship between aggregate unemployment rates and mortality, and the return to technical and vocational education. Stevens previously served on the faculty at Rutgers and Yale universities and is a faculty research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research. She has also served as an investigator on numerous grants from the National Science Foundation and other agencies. Contact: Ann Huff Stevens, Center for Poverty Research, (530) 752-0401, annstevens@ucdavis.edu.

Financial and tax accounting, education of CPAs

Will Snyder is the executive director of the Master of Professional Accountancy program, which welcomed its first class at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management in fall 2012. UC Davis was the first University of California school to offer a master’s degree in professional accountancy — a response to major changes in educational requirements and the resulting need for improved training of certified public accountants in California. Snyder served as a full-time member of the Charles W. Lamden School of Accountancy at San Diego State University for 24 years. Prior to that, he was a partner with Deloitte Haskins and Sells, an international professional services firm. He was also a professor at the University of Southern California, his alma mater, from 1992 to 1994. Contact: Will Snyder, Graduate School of Management, (530) 752-7403, wsnyder@ucdavis.edu.