University of Southern California

PhD Program

Accounting

The Accounting Ph.D. program includes research focused on several accounting disciplines, including Financial, Managerial, and Auditing and Corporate Governance Accounting.

Financial Accounting

  • Accounting standard setting
  • Financial regulation
  • International accounting
  • Company valuation and financial statement analysis
  • Earnings management
  • Stock markets and market efficiency
  • Earnings forecasting and financial analyst behavior

Managerial Accounting

  • Performance evaluation and compensation
  • Budgeting and other control issues in organizations
  • Balanced scorecard
  • Strategic management accounting

Auditing and Corporate Governance

  • Audit markets
  • Auditor independence
  • Auditor behavior and decision making
  • Corporate governance issues

Tax Accounting

  • Tax planning
  • Tax clientele
  • Tax policy and its effects on businesses

Faculty Coordinator

Mark Soliman, Associate Professor

Learn More

Learn more about accounting program requirements, research, placements, and students.

Marshall Spotlight

Maria Ogneva

"What distinguishes the USC Marshall School of Business Ph.D. program is the quality of mentoring that students receive. The program is relatively small, which means that students get a lot of individual attention from the faculty, who not only provide high-quality guidance for students’ independent dissertation research but also co-author joint projects with students. Starting this apprenticeship at a very early stage, the students can expect to have journal publications by the end of the program. In the world where graduating doctoral students are increasingly expected to enter the job market with a proven ability to produce publishable research, the presence of publications can be instrumental in securing a top faculty position."

—Maria Ogneva, Assistant Professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business