Accolades: Jindal School Professors Receive Honors for Research

Accolades is an occasional News Center feature that highlights recent accomplishments of UT Dallas faculty and students. To submit items for consideration, contact your school’s communication manager.

Professor Ranked Second-Most Influential Researcher in Fields

Dr. Mike Peng, O.P. Jindal Distinguished Chair in the Naveen Jindal School of Management, has been recognized as the second-most influential researcher in the fields of business and economics worldwide.

Peng has the second-largest number of highly cited papers in the world, based on scholarly articles published between 2004 and 2015. Peng, who is tied with three other scholars, trailed only Dr. James J. Heckman, the 2000 Nobel laureate in economics.

Highly cited papers — those that are most often cited in other scholarly articles, books or other sources — are considered indicators of research excellence and top performance.

The analysis, which relied on the Essential Science Indicators database, examined the top 1 percent of the authors of the top 1 percent of the most-cited papers in economics and business. The findings were recently published online in Scientometrics.

The same study also reported that UT Dallas is the 39th-most influential university in business and economics worldwide, measured by citations.

Accounting Professor’s Research Earns Best Paper Award

Dr. Bin Li, assistant professor of accounting in the Naveen Jindal School of Management, has won a Best Paper Award from the Financial Accounting and Reporting Section of the American Accounting Association.

Li is co-author of the winning study, “Do the FASB’s Standards Add Shareholder Value?” with Dr. Urooj Khan and Dr. Shivaram Rajgopal of Columbia University, and Dr. Mohan Venkatachalam of Duke University.

“I’m gratified to be recognized by such a prestigious organization,” Li said. “My co-authors and I started working on the project in 2012, when I first joined the Jindal School. Without the continuous support from the school and my colleagues, I cannot imagine this would have happened.”

The paper was published in the March 2018 issue of the association’s publication, The Accounting Review. The study addresses whether the standard-setting process of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has been effective. The team examined the stock market reaction to FASB standards issued between 1973 and 2009.

“Other disciplines often study the efficacy of mandatory disclosure in areas of health care, nutrition, workplace hazards and others,” Li said. “Our paper is the first accounting study to comprehensively examine the FASB’s standard-setting efficacy.”

Two other Jindal School faculty members won awards from the Financial Accounting and Reporting Section of the association this year. Dr. Maria Loumioti, assistant professor of accounting, was one of 22 recipients of the Outstanding Discussion Award. Dr. Lale Guler, clinical associate professor of accounting, was one of 88 recipients of the Excellence in Reviewing Award.