WHU

Finance & Accounting Group –
Nine chairs, two centers

Our chairs & centers

Our academic members

Professor Paul Achleitner
Professor Paul Achleitner
Professor Andreas Barckow
Professor Andreas Barckow
Professor Hartmut Leser
Professor Hartmut Leser
Professor Edgar Löw
Professor Edgar Löw
Professor Axel Wieandt
Professor Axel Wieandt
Associate Professor Michael Erkens
Associate Professor Michael Erkens
Jan Caspar Hoffmann
Jan Caspar Hoffmann
Dr. Tobias Keller
Dr. Tobias Keller
Dr. Dennis Jullens
Dr. Dennis Jullens
Dr. Thomas Ridder
Dr. Thomas Ridder
Sven Westphälinger
Sven Westphälinger

Selected publications

Finance and Accounting Group

Inflation and individual investors' behavior: evidence from the German hyperinflation

Braggion, F., von Mayerinck, F., Schaub, N. (Pre-print), Review of Financial Studies
Finance and Accounting Group

The “CEO in context” technique revisited: A replication and extension of Hambrick and Quigley (2014)

Keller, T., Glaum, M., Bausch, A., Benz, T. (2022), Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 44 (4), pp. 907-1138
Finance and Accounting Group

The role of internal M&A teams in takeovers

Aktas, N., Boone, A., Witkowski, A., Xu, G., Yurtoglu, B. (2021), Review of Finance, Vol. 25 (4), pp. 1046-1088
Finance and Accounting Group

Goodwill impairment: The effects of public enforcement and monitoring by institutional investors

Glaum, M., Landsman, W.R., Wyrwa, S. (2018), The Accounting Review, Vol. 93 (6), pp. 149-180
Finance and Accounting Group

Financial advice and bank profits

Hoechle, D., Ruenzi, S., Schaub, N., Schmid, M. (2018), Review of Financial Studies, Vol. 31(11), pp. 4447-4492
Finance and Accounting Group

Not all clawbacks are the same: Consequences of strong versus weak clawback provisions

Erkens, M.H.R., Gan, Y., Yurtoglu, B.B. (2018), Journal of Accounting and Economics, Vol. 66 (1), 291-317
Finance and Accounting Group

CEO narcissism and the takeover process: from private initiation to deal completion

Atkas, N., De Bodt, E., Bollaert, H., Roll, R. (2016), Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Vol. 51, pp. 113-137
Finance and Accounting Group

Risk preferences around the world

Rieger, M.O., Wang, M., T. Hens (2015), Management Science, Vol. 61 (3), pp. 637-648
Finance and Accounting Group

Learning from repetitive acquisitions: evidence from the time between deals

Aktas, N., De Bodt, E., Roll, R. (2013), Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 108, pp. 99-117
Finance and Accounting Group

Negotiations under the threat of an auction

Aktas, N., De Bodt, E., Roll, R. (2010), Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 98, pp. 241-255
Finance and Accounting Group

Inflation and individual investors' behavior: evidence from the German hyperinflation

Braggion, F., von Mayerinck, F., Schaub, N. (Pre-print), Review of Financial Studies
Finance and Accounting Group

The “CEO in context” technique revisited: A replication and extension of Hambrick and Quigley (2014)

Keller, T., Glaum, M., Bausch, A., Benz, T. (2022), Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 44 (4), pp. 907-1138
Finance and Accounting Group

The role of internal M&A teams in takeovers

Aktas, N., Boone, A., Witkowski, A., Xu, G., Yurtoglu, B. (2021), Review of Finance, Vol. 25 (4), pp. 1046-1088
Finance and Accounting Group

Goodwill impairment: The effects of public enforcement and monitoring by institutional investors

Glaum, M., Landsman, W.R., Wyrwa, S. (2018), The Accounting Review, Vol. 93 (6), pp. 149-180
Finance and Accounting Group

Financial advice and bank profits

Hoechle, D., Ruenzi, S., Schaub, N., Schmid, M. (2018), Review of Financial Studies, Vol. 31(11), pp. 4447-4492
Finance and Accounting Group

Not all clawbacks are the same: Consequences of strong versus weak clawback provisions

Erkens, M.H.R., Gan, Y., Yurtoglu, B.B. (2018), Journal of Accounting and Economics, Vol. 66 (1), 291-317
Finance and Accounting Group

CEO narcissism and the takeover process: from private initiation to deal completion

Atkas, N., De Bodt, E., Bollaert, H., Roll, R. (2016), Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Vol. 51, pp. 113-137
Finance and Accounting Group

Risk preferences around the world

Rieger, M.O., Wang, M., T. Hens (2015), Management Science, Vol. 61 (3), pp. 637-648
Finance and Accounting Group

Learning from repetitive acquisitions: evidence from the time between deals

Aktas, N., De Bodt, E., Roll, R. (2013), Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 108, pp. 99-117
Finance and Accounting Group

Negotiations under the threat of an auction

Aktas, N., De Bodt, E., Roll, R. (2010), Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 98, pp. 241-255

WHU Research Seminar in Finance & Accounting

Upcoming talks:
  • February 1, 2024, Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi, University of Mannheim
  • February 22, 2024, Klaus Adam, University of Mannheim
  • February 29, 2024, Andrej Gill, University of Mainz
  • March 7, 2024, Farooq Ahmad, SKEMA Business School
  • March 21, 2024, Mark Egan, Harvard Business School
  • April 18, 2024, Sibylle Lehmann-Hasemeyer, University of Hohenheim
  • April 25, 2024, Toan Huynh, Queen Mary University of London
  • May 23, 2024, Saskia Kohlhase, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Fall 2023

  • September 9, 2023, Kasper Meisner Nielsen, Copenhagen Business School, “Rich and Responsible? The Rise of Responsible Investors”
  • September 14, 2023, Laurent Weill, University of Strasbourg, “Do Not Expect Cheaper Loan Before Elections: European Evidence”
  • September 21, 2023, Christoph Merkle, Aarhus University, “The Affect Heuristic and Financial Expectations: Risk, Return, and ESG”
  • September 28, 2023, Florian Weigert, University of Neuchatel, “Hedge Funds and the Positive Idiosyncratic Volatility Effect”
  • October 12, 2023, Alessandro Previtero, Indiana University, “Smart(Phone) Investing? An Analysis of New Technologies and Trading Behavior”
  • October 26, 2023, Yigitcan Karabulut, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, “Business Education and Portfolio Returns”

Spring 2023

  • January 25, 2023, Michael Haliassos, Goethe University Frankfurt, “Wealth Inequality: Opportunity or Unfairness”
  • February 23, 2023, Guosong Xu, Rotterdam School of Management, “Involuntarily green? Corporate donations to politicians and their votes on environmental legislation”
  • March 9, 2023, Martin Brown, Study Center Gerzensee/University St. Gallen, “Consumer Adoption of Financial Technology: Contactless Card Payments during the COVID-19 Pandemic”
  • March 16, 2023, Falko Fecht, Deutsche Bundesbank, “Financial fragility in open-ended mutual funds: the role of liquidity management tools”
  • March 30, 2023, Felix Fattinger, WU Vienna, “Trading Complex Risks”

Fall 2022

  • September 6, 2022, Zoran Filipovic, University Paris Dauphine, “The Intangibles Song in Takeover Announcements: Good Tempo, Hollow Tune”
  • September 20, 2022, Rik Frehen, Tilburg University, “How harmful is insider trading for outsiders? Evidence from the eighteenth century”
  • September 27, 2022, Christoph Herpfer, Emory University, “The Hidden Costs of Government Shutdowns”
  • October 4, 2022, Yannis Tsalavoutas, University of Glasgow, “R&D tax incentives and R&D investment efficiency: International Evidence”

Spring 2022

  • April 12, 2022, Wolfgang Drobetz, University of Hamburg, “Foreign Bias in Institutional Portfolio Allocation: The Role of Social Trust”
  • April 5, 2022, Vesa Pursiainen, University of St. Gallen, “Reputational Costs of Litigation”

Fall 2021

  • October 5, 2021, Linus Siming, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, “Bank Green Bonds”
  • September 28, 2021, Paul Momtaz, Goethe University Frankfurt, “Revisiting the Private Equity Discount: Evidence from SEC’s shortening of the mandatory holding period of restricted PIPE securities”
  • September 21, 2021, Fabio Braggion, Tilburg University, “Credit Provision and Stock Trading: Evidence from the South Sea Bubble”

Spring 2021

  • March 16, 2021, Joey Engelberg, University of California San Diego, “Echo Chambers”
  • February 9, 2021, Elisabeth Kempf, University of Chicago, “Fifty Shades of QE: Conflicts of Interest in Economic Research”

Fall 2020

  • September 15, 2020, Matthias Muck, University of Bamberg, “Smile Construction on FX Option Markets Using Garman-Kohlhagen Deltas and Implied Volatilities”
  • September 29, 2020, Alberto Manconi, Bocconi University, “Are Star Firms Also Better Law Firms?”

Spring 2020

  • February 4, 2020, Stefan Ruenzi, University of Mannheim, “The Impact of Role Models on Women’s Self-selection in Competitive Environments”
  • February 11, 2020, Oliver Spalt, University of Mannheim, “Litigating Innovation: Evidence from Securities Class Action Lawsuits”
  • March 3, 2020, Christine Laudenbach, Goethe University Frankfurt, “Do Women Get Worse Financial Advice?”
  • April 14, 2020, Steffen Meyer, University of Southern Denmark, “Same banks, same clients but different pricing: How do flat-fees for mutual funds affect retail investor portfolios?”

Fall 2019

  • August 22, 2019, Yakov Amihud, New York University, “Liquidity and asset pricing II”
  • September 10, 2019, Markus Schmid, University St. Gallen, “As California goes, so goes the nation? Gender quotas and the legislation of non-economic values”
  • September 17, 2019, Thomas Lambert, Rotterdam School of Management, “Crowdfunding Dynamics”
  • September 24, 2019, Eli Fich, Drexel University, “Class Action Spillover Effects on Joint Venture Partners”
  • October 22, 2019, Yinggang Zhou, Xiamen University, “Return and volatility transmission between the Chinese and international oil futures markets”
  • November 19, 2019, Shantanu Banerjee, Lancester University, “Predatory Advertising, Financial Fraud, and Leverage”
  • November 26, 2019, Christoph Schneider, Tilburg University, “Mergers and Acquisitions and the reallocation of labour”
  • December 03, 2019, Tereza Tykvová, University of Hohenheim, “Are Private Equity Investments Bad News for Peers?”

Spring 2019

  • February 19, 2019, Jasmin Gider, Tilburg University, “The Dollar Profits to Insider Trading”
  • March 12, 2019, Alessia de Stefani, Danmarks Nationalbank, “Real Effects on Relaxing Financial Constraints for Homeowners: Evidence from Danish Firms”
  • April 9, 2019, Gonul Colak, Hanken School of Economics, “Commitment or constraint? The effect of loan covenants on M&A activity”

Fall 2018

  • August 18, 2018, Yakov Amihud, New York University, “Liquidity spillovers”
  • September 11, 2018, Dimitris Andriosopoulos, University of Strathclyde, “Overpayment, Financial Distress and Investor Horizons”
  • September 18, 2018, Jean-Gabriel Cousin, University of Lille, “Stock market driven acquisitions? Is there really an association between acquirer equity overvaluation and full stock-swaps in M&A transactions?”
  • September 25, 2018, Diane Pierret, University of Lausanne, “Stressed Banks”
  • October 23, 2018, Eliezer Fich, Drexel University, “Shareholder Litigation and the Information Environment”
  • October 29, 2018, Michael Weber, University of Chicago, “Human Frictions in the Transmission of Economic Policy”
  • November 6, 2018, Andrey Golubov, University of Toronto, “The run-up in acquirer returns”
  • November 13, 2018, Eric de Bodt, University of Lille, “Coporate Rivalry and Return Comovement”

Spring 2018

  • January 23, 2018, Paul Smeets, Maastricht University, “Let’s Invite the Women: Women Reduce Overconfidence in Groups”
  • February 6, 2018, Amedeo De Cesari, University of Manchester, “Employment Protection and Share Repurchases: Evidence from Wrongful Discharge Laws”
  • March 13, 2018, David Florysiak, University of Southern Denmark, “An Autopsy of a Total Stock Market Failure”
  • March 20, 2018, Markku Kaustia, Aalto University, “Hidden Investment Beliefs”
  • April 10, 2018, Bernard Black, Northwestern University, “The Trouble with Instruments: Re-examining Shock-IV Designs”
  • April 17, 2018, Aksel Mjøs, Norwegian School of Economics, “Credit supply shocks, financial constraints and investments for small and medium-sized firms”
  • April 24, 2018, Daniel Ferreira, London School of Economics, “Board Quotas and Director-Firm Matching”

Fall 2017

  • August 28, 2017, Ralf Elsas, LMU, “The Dark Side of Short Selling”
  • August 29, 2017, Yakov Amihud, New York University, “Liquidity, Investment & Production”
  • September 5, 2017, Audra Boone, Texas Christian University, “Political Uncertainty and Firm Disclosure”
  • November 28, 2017, Marius A. Zoican, University Paris Dauphine, “Smart Settlement”
  • December 5, 2017, Farzad Saidi, Stockholm School of Economics, “Life Below Zero: Bank Lending Under Negative Policy Rates”
  • December 10, 2017, Ulf von Lilienfeld-Toal, University of Luxembourg, “Identifying the Benefits from Home Ownership: A Swedish Experiment”

Spring 2017

  • February 21, 2017, Igor Goncharov, Lancaster University, “Do central banks try to avoid losses? Why? And does it matter for policy?”
  • March 7, 2017, Christodoulos Louca, Cyprus University of Technology, “IPO Allocations and New Mutual Funds”
  • March 14, 2017, Philipp Schuster, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, “Volume Dependent Bond Liquidity Measures and Their Asset Pricing Implications”
  • March 21, 2017, Paul Guest, University of Surrey, “Board Ethnic Diversity and Monitoring”
  • March 28, 2017, Cláudia Custódio, Imperial College Business School, “Compensation and Real Estate Prices”
  • April 25, 2017, Denis Gromb, HEC Paris, “The Paradox of Pledgeability”

Fall 2016

  • August 30, 2016, Yakov Amihud, New York University, “Governance and Company Value”
  • September 6, 2016, Raghavendra Rau, University of Cambridge, “Can Serial Acquirers be profiled?”
  • September 13, 2016, Eliezer Fich, Drexel University, “Advertising, Attention, and Acquisition Returns”
  • September 27, 2016, Aurore Burietz, IESEG School of Management, “Europe versus the U.S.: A New Look at the Syndicated Loan Pricing Puzzle”
  • October 25, 2016, Martin Schmalz, University of Michigan, “Common Ownership, Competition, and Top Management Incentives”
  • November 8, 2016, Antonio Gledson de Carvalho, FGV, “Dotcom Bubble and Underpricing: Conjecture and Evidence”
  • November 22, 2016, Astrid Schornick, INSEAD, “Household Investments, limited Participation and Equity Premia when Wealth matters”
  • November 29, 2016, Alexander Hillert, Goethe University Frankfurt, “Mutual Fund Shareholder Letters: Flows, Performance, and Managerial Behavior”

Fall 2023

  • October 20, 2023, Tim Martens, Bocconi University, “Do Firms Listen to Social Media Analysts? Evidence from Seeking Alpha”
  • December 1, 2023, Inga Hardeck, University of Regensburg, “Does Public Tax Sustainability Disclosure Deter Corporate Tax Avoidance? Evidence from GRI 207 Reporting”
  • December 15, 2023, Christoph Sextroh, Tilburg University, “Financial Dissemination and Employee Satisfaction: Evidence from Corporate Layoffs”
  • January 12, 2024, Harald Amberger, WU Vienna, “The Economic Effects of Introducing a Cash Flow Tax: Empirical Evidence”

Spring 2023

  • April 14, 2023, Nathan Goldman, North Carolina State University, “Executive Compensation and Income Tax Rate Progression”
  • June 9, 2023, Paul Demere, University of Georgia, “Using Narrative Disclosures to Understand Tax Outcomes”
  • June 23, 2023, Jeremy Bentley, University of Massachusetts Amherst – Isenberg School of Management, “The “What”, “How”, and “Why” of Earnings Announcement Disclosures and Formatting”

Spring 2022

  • March 21, 2022, Rebecca Lester, Stanford University, “Tax Subsidy Information and Local Economic Effects”
  • April 4, 2022, Stephen Glaeser, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, “Misreporting of ESG Information”
  • April 13, 2022, Benjamin Yost, Boston College, “Do Tax-Based Proprietary Costs Discourage Public Listing? Evidence from FIN 48“

Spring 2020

  • January 10, 2020, Maria Loumioti, Naveen Jindal School of Management, “Direct Lending: The Determinants, Characteristics and Performance of Direct Loans”
  • March 6, 2020, Jaron Wilde, University of Iowa, “Beyond Borders: Supergovernment Monitoring and Tax Enforcement”

Fall 2019

  • September 27, 2019, Miguel Duro, IESE Business School University of Navarra, “Debiasing the Measurement of Conditional Conservatism”
  • October 18, 2019, Annelies Renders, Maastricht University, “Do Changes in Financial Reporting Standards Improve Capital Allocational Efficiency? An Industry-Focused Analysis”
  • October 25, 2019, Dirk Schindler, Erasmus University Rotterdam, “Income Shifting and Management Incentives”
  • November 8, 2019, Jacco Wielhouwer, VU Amsterdam, “The effect of tax rates and tariffs on transfer pricing components”
  • November 29, 2019, Dominika Langenmayr, KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, “Trading Offshore: Evidence on Banks' Tax Avoidance”
  • December 6, 2019, Doris Merkl-Davies, Bangor Business School, “Does voluntary tax reporting result in increased tax transparency? The case of Vodafone”

Spring 2019

  • January 25, 2019, Karthik Ramanna, University of Oxford, “The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits; but not for the reason you think”
  • February 15, 2019, Karthik Balakrishnan, London Business School, “Symmetric Ignorance is Bliss: When does Transparency Reduce Liquidity?”
  • March 1, 2019, Michele Fabrizi, University of Padova, “Criminal Firms and Peer Firm Tax Avoidance: Evidence from a Natural Experiment”
  • March 8, 2019, Pietro Bonetti, IESE Business School, “Disclosure Regulation and Corporate Acquisitions”
  • May 10, 2019, David Windisch, University of Graz, “Measuring Accounting Comparability”

Fall 2018

  • September 28, 2018, Aytekin Ertan, London Business School, “Financial Intermediation through Financial Disintermediation: Evidence from the ECB Corporate Sector Purchase Programme“
  • October 5, 2018, Amir Amel-Zadeh, University of Oxford, “Are All Insider Sales Created Equal?
    Evidence from Form 4 Footnote Disclosures”
  • November 23, 2018, Robert Ullmann, University of Augsburg, “Norderfriedrichskoog! Tax Havens, Tax Competition and the Introduction of a Minimum Tax Rate”

Spring 2018

  • February 2, 2018, Stefano Cascino, London School of Economics, “Labor market effects of spatial licensing requirements: Evidence from CPA mobility”
  • March 9, 2018, Jochen Pierk, Erasmus University Rotterdam, „Determinants and consequences of group and component auditor alignment”
  • April 6, 2018, Frank Ecker, Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, “Payoffs to Aggressivness”
  • April 20, 2018, Thomas Gilliam, IE Business School Madrid, “Detecting Real Activities Manipulation”
  • June 8, 2018, Harry Huizinga, Tilburg University, “Foreign Banks and International Transmission of Monetary Policy: Evidence from the Syndicated Loan Market”
  • June 15, 2018, Volkan Muslu, University of Houston, “How do Firms changes Investments based on MD&A disclosures of peer firm”

Fall 2017

  • September 8, 2017, Dan Amiran, Columbia Business School, “Do executive compensation contracts maximize firm value? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment”
  • October 13, 2017, Daniel Beneish, University of Indiana, “Explaining Merger Wealth Effects using Allocated Merger Prices”
  • October 26, 2017, Roni Michaely, Cornell University, “Are U.S. Industries Becoming More Concentrated?”
  • October 27, 2017, Zoltan Novotny-Farkas, Lancaster University, “Are Level 3 fair value gains and losses informative? Evidence from FAS 157 rollforward disclosures”
  • November 17, 2017, Christian Laux, WU Vienna, “Accounting and the Financial Crisis: The real problems and Challenges (Going Forward)”
  • November 24, 2017, Harm Schütt, LMU, “Competition in Financial News Markets and Trading Activity”
  • December 8, 2017, Luc Paugam, HEC Paris, “Enforcement and Cash Flow Management to Delay Goodwill Impairments under IFRS”

Spring 2017

  • January 13, 2017, Johannes Voget, University of Mannheim, “International Taxation and Productivity Effects of M&As”
  • February 10, 2017, Niamh Brennan, Quinn School of Business, “A Theoretical Framework of external Accounting Communication: Research Perspectives, Traditions, and Theories”
  • March 23, 2017, Luzi Hail, Wharton School, “Do Risk Disclosures Matter When It Counts? Evidence from the Swiss Franc Shock”
  • March 31, 2017, Christina Dargenidou, University of Exeter, “Real activities management to prevent fiscal deficits: Evidence from municipal corporations”
  • April 21, 2017, Philip Joos, University of Tilburg, “How do Analysts Process Managerial Earnings Forecasts? An Experimental Study Using Eye- Tracking Technology”
  • April 28, 2017, Paul André, HEC Lausanne, „Business group membership and IFRS reporting: The effect of group financing and investing incentives”
  • June 2, 2017, Alfred Wagenhofer, University of Graz, “Effects of Increasing Enforcement on Firm Value and Financial Reporting Quality”
  • June 23, 2017, Shivaram Rajgopal, GSB Columbia, “Towards a Financial Statement Based Approach to Modeling Systemic Risk in Insurance and Banking”
  • June 30, 2017, Saverio Bozzolan, LUISS University Rome, “Consistency, in Guidance Characteristics”

Fall 2016

  • September 7, 2016, Jannis Bischof, University of Mannheim, “Why Did Politicians Blame Fair Value Accounting during the Financial Crisis? The Role of Conservative Ideology and Special Interests”
  • October 13, 2016, Scott Dyreng, Duke University, “Trade-offs in the Repatriation of Foreigns Earnings”
  • November 11, 2016, Gaizka Ormazabal, IESE Business School, “The Effect of SEC’s Public Disclosure of its Oversight Actions
  • November 25, 2016, Michael Overesch, University of Cologne, “Capital Market Reaction to Tax Avoidance: Evidence from LuxLeaks”
  • December 2, 2016, Juha- Pekka Kallunki, University of Oulu, “Do Smarter Auditors Deliver Better Audit Qualitiy? – Archival Evidence Based on Unique IQ Data on Swedish Auditors”

Have you ever thought about
our Doctoral Program?

Are you an academically excellent and highly motivated student interested in pursuing research in finance and accounting topics?

We are delighted to receive applications from inspiring German and foreign candidates seeking to undertake Doctoral studies in one of the fields of finance and accounting.

WHU