PHD PROGRAM IN ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE
Department of Accounting and Finance
University of Western Australia
(A world's top 100 university)
ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT
The Department of Accounting and Finance forms the core department in the University of Western Australia, a world's top 100 university and one of the Go8 (Group of 8) universities in Australia. The department is committed to training and equipping PhD students with the skills required for a rewarding future career in the academic, industry or public sector. Working closely with world-class faculty members, PhD students are expected to contribute to intellectual-stimulating discussions and advance the knowledge of accounting and finance, culminating in a doctoral thesis.
For more information, please contact Associate Professor Kam Chan (Graduate Research Coordinator/PhD program leader for the department) or talk to a university Graduate School representative for enrolment, and scholarship opportunities. This is not an official website for the department; for the department's official website, click on the button below.
ACCOUNTING
Faculty members of the department have published extensively in leading tier-one accounting journals, including:
Journal of Accounting Research
Review of Accounting Studies
The Accounting Review
Contemporary Accounting Research
The European Accounting Review
Accounting, Organizations, and Society, and
Management Accounting Research
A list of accounting faculty members who are eligible to supervise, together with their research interests, are shown below (click on the thumbnails to explore further)
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FINANCE
Faculty members of the department have published extensively in leading tier-one finance journals, including:
Journal of Financial Economics
Review of Financial Studies
Journal of Banking and Finance
Journal of Corporate Finance and
Journal of Financial Econometrics.
In addition, the department's scholarly findings were widely reported in leading global media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and Australian Financial Review (AFR).
A list of finance faculty members who are eligible to supervise, together with their research interests, are shown below (click on the thumbnails to explore further)
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Cryptocurrencies, blockchain, gold, financial econometrics, environmental finance
Behavioural finance, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, networks in capital markets
Financial literacy, superannuation and retirement savings, financial decision making and performance
Market microstructure, investments, commodity markets, behavioural finance, empirical asset pricing
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Empirical asset pricing, investments, portfolio allocations, capital markets, financial modelling
Corporate finance, ESG, market microstructure, funds management, insider trading
Superannuation, pension funds, socially responsible investing, financial literacy, financial education
Empirical asset pricing, private equity, private debt, quantitative finance
Credit risk, ESG, asset pricing, sustainable finance, international finance
Corporate finance, Mergers and Acquisitions, corporate governance
Empirical asset pricing, exchange rate economics, international finance, commodity markets
Market microstructure, behavioral finance, experimental economics, financial institutions, capital markets
Corporate finance, CSR, IPO, mergers and acquisitions, equity issuance
Cryptocurrencies, market microstructure
Corporate finance, sustainable finace, ESG, corporate governance
Energy economics, network of financial markets, empirical finance
RECENT NOTABLE JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS
ACCOUNTING
Kent, R., and Birt, J., (2021). IAS 7 and value relevance: the direct method versus the indirect method, Review of Accounting Studies, forthcoming
Agarwal, N., and Chakraverty, J., (2021). Growth opportunities, information asymmetry, and dividend payout: Evidence from mandatory IFRS adoption, European Accounting Review forthcoming
Masschelein, S., and Moers, F., (2020). Testing for complementarities between accounting practices, Accounting, Organizations and Society. 101127.
Chong, V., and Wang, I., (2019). Delegation of Decision Rights and Misreporting: The Roles of Incentive-based Compensation Schemes and Responsibility Rationalization, European Accounting Review 28, 275-307
Ball, R., & Brown, P., (2014) Ball and Brown (1968): A retrospective, The Accounting Review 89, 1-26.
Masschelein, S., Cardinaels, E. & Van Den Abbeele, A., (2012) ABC Information, Fairness Perceptions, and Interfirm Negotiations, The Accounting Review 87, 951-973.
FINANCE
Chan, K., and Marsh, T., (2021). Asset pricing on earnings announcement days, Journal of Financial Economics, forthcoming
Chan, K., and Marsh, T., (2021). Asset prices, midterm elections, and political uncertainty, Journal of Financial Economics 141, 276-296
Werner, I., Wen, Y., Rindi, B., and Buti, S., (2022). Tick size, trading strategies and market quality, Management Science, forthcoming
Foley, S., Karlsen, J., and Putnins, T., (2019). Sex drugs and bitcoin: How much illegal activity is financed through cryptocurrencies?, Review of Financial Studies 32, 1798-1853.
Hendershott, T., Wee, M., and Wen, Y., (2022). Transparency in Fragmented Markets: Experimental Evidence, Journal of Financial Markets, forthcoming
Baur, D., and Smales, L., (2020). Hedging geopolitical risk with precious metals, Journal of Banking and Finance 117, 105823.
Cahill, D., Baur, D., (Frank) Liu, Z., and Yang, W. (2020). I am a blockchain too: How does the market respond to companies’ interest in blockchain? Journal of Banking and Finance 113, 105740.
MEDIA COVERAGE
Our faculty constantly contributes to global news outlets
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Kam Fong Chan
A summer stock-market strategy: invest defensively (2021).
AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW
Raymond da Silva
Criticism of unis for catering to China needs to be unpacked (2020)
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
Raymond da Silva
Will the sharemarket recover? Here’s a way to think sensibly about the odds (2020)
WATODAY
David Gilchrist
The cruel dilemma at the heart of WA's success at flattening the COVID-19 curve (2020)
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN
Funding Charities Good for the Economy (2020)
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Kam Fong Chan
The right time to buy high-beta stocks (2020)
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION
Lee Smales
Can't decide between a car or a house? These are some other financial goals to consider (2019)
THE AUSTRALIAN
David Gilchrist
NDIS sees disability groups cut care (2017)
DISTINGUISHED PROFESSORS
The department's distinguished Emeritus Professors and Advisors
PROF. PHILIP BROWN
In 1968, Prof. Brown and Prof. Ray Ball published a seminal paper entitled “An empirical evaluation of accounting income numbers”, which has since become a must-read paper for all accounting/finance PhD students. Prof. Brown received the Inaugural Award of the American Accounting Association’s Seminal Contribution to Accounting Literature, and the Wharton-Jacobs Levy Prize for Quantitative Financial Innovation.
WHY STUDY WITH US?
THOUGHT-PROVOKING RESEARCH
Faculty members of the department have constantly published in leading tier-one journals such as Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review and Review of Accounting Studies. PhD students are expected to work closely with faculty members on thought-provoking research projects, and publish in tier-one journals.
DEDICATED PHD PROGRAM
It is a 4-year research intensive program, and students are also expected to undertake the necessary coursework, join bootcamps in programming, be given an opportunity to be an RA (research assistant) for other faculty members, participate rigorously during Friday seminars etc.
SAFE CAMPUS
The university campus is located along the picturesque Swan River in Perth. Perth was recently nominated as one of the top 10 safest cities to live in.
CURRENT PHD STUDENTS
The list below shows some of our current PhD students and their research profiles
Jimin Wang
Jimin received the prestigious UWA Research Training Program Stipend to pursue his doctoral study. His PhD research topic is on the impacts of corporate cybersecurity (FinTech)
Yuyun Huang
Yuyun received the prestigious UWA Research Training Program Stipend to pursue her doctoral study. Her PhD research topics are on insider trading, algorithmic trading and stock price informativeness.
Fiona Roeslim
Fiona received the UWA International Fees Scholarship and UWA Postgraduate Award to pursue her doctoral study. She was also the 2018 Philip Brown Scholar.
Yun Lu
Yun Lu holds a Master in Professional Accounting (with High Distinction). Her current PhD study involves examining the influences of digital technology on accounting.
Maryam Shariatmadari
Maryam's doctoral study involves examining the determinants and consequences of shareholders' voting. She recently had a paper accepted for presentation at the Southwestern Finance Association Conference
Phuong Vu
In her doctoral study, Vu investigates the compensation plan and the performance measures in those plans within hospitality groups in Vietnam and Australia. Previously, Vu was an Assistant Manager at KPMG Vietnam.
JOB MARKET CANDIDATES
Find out about our job market candidates including their research interests, accolades, achievements etc. They are available for recruitment in 2022.
LAI T. HOANG
Lai is expected to graduate in April 2022, with a thesis entitled "To swing or not to swing: Four essays on cryptocurrencies". Notably, he has published in leading international journals, including European Journal of Finance, Journal of Futures Markets, and Finance Research Letters, and was a recipient of various accolades, including Best PhD Paper Award at the 2020 Cryptocurrency Research Conference (University of Reading), and New Zealand ASEAN Scholar Awards. Lai is also an expert in R, SAS, Python, SQL and web scraping, and has been a teaching fellow at UWA since 2019.
RECENT PHD GRADUATES
NOTABLE ALUMNI
Many of the Department’s prior PhD students now hold various positions in academia, academic associations, professional bodies, the public sector, and/or industry
Accounting
PROF. ANN TARCA
Prof. Ann is currently a board member of the IASB. She was previously the Head of Discipline of Accounting & Finance at UWA Business School
Accounting
PROF. JULIANA NG
Prof. Juliana is currently the Director of Research School of Accounting at Australian National School
Accounting
PROF. VINCENT CHONG
Prof. Vincent is currently the deputy Head of Department of Accounting and Finance at UWA Business School
Finance
PROF. RAYMOND DA SILVA ROSA
Prof. Raymond is the Chair of Academic Board at UWA. He was previously the Head of Department of Accounting and Finance at UWA Business School, and was also the past President of AFAANZ.
Finance
PROF. MARTIN BUGEJA
Prof. Martin was the Head of Discipline of Accounting at University Technology of Sydney (UTS).
Finance
PROF. MILLICENT CHANG
Prof. Millicent is the Head of Discipline of Finance at Wollongong University. She is also the Deputy Editor of Australian Journal of Management, and was the past President of AFAANZ
Finance
ASSOC. PROF. MARVIN WEE
Assoc. Prof. Marvin is currently the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Accounting and Finance, and is currently affiliated with Australian National University
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