Daniel Aobdia

Color portrait of Daniel Aobdia

Ernst & Young Professor of Accounting

Department Accounting

Phone Number 814-865-6142
Email Address dza5396@psu.edu

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Professor Daniel Aobdia is the Ernst & Young Professor of Accounting at the Smeal College of Business at Penn State. He previously held positions as an Assistant and Associate Professor of Accounting at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management and was also, between 2014 and 2016, a senior economic research fellow in the Center for Economic Analysis at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB).

Professor Aobdia’s research interests span empirical accounting and economics. His primary focus is using auditing as a setting to answer broad economic questions, such as the impact of regulation, the role of information spillovers, and the influence of labor and non-labor inputs in organizations, including the role of high-skilled immigration, culture and tools. Another focus is studying the effects of disclosure on the functioning of capital and product markets. He has published his research at the Journal of Accounting and Economics, The Accounting Review, the Review of Accounting Studies, and Management Science. He is currently an Associate Editor at the Journal of Accounting and Economics, and on the Editorial Boards of the Review of Accounting Studies, The Accounting Review, The International Journal of Accounting, Accounting and Business Research, and Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory. He is also an editor at Accounting Horizons.

Earlier in his career, Professor Aobdia worked in the investment banking division at Morgan Stanley in Los Angeles and at a boutique strategy consulting firm, Mars and Company, in Tokyo, Japan. He received a B.S. from the Ecole Polytechnique in France, an M.S. from Stanford University and an MBA and Ph.D. from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Education

Ph.D., Management (Accounting), The University of California, Los Angeles, 2012

M.B.A., Management, The University of California, Los Angeles, 2006

M.S., Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University, 2002

B.S. (diplome d'ingenieur), Maths and Physics, Ecole Polytechnique, 1999

Courses Taught

ACCTG 596 – Individual Studies (Variable)

BA 811 – Financial Accounting (2)
An integrative approach to the role of accounting information in managerial decision making with a focus on its uses in the implementation of a firm's strategy and on its uses in equity and credit analyses and decisions.

ACCTG 403W – Auditing (3)
Financial, compliance, internal, and operational audits; standards and procedures; sampling; EDP auditing; professional issues; application of concepts through written responses. ACCTG 403W Auditing (3) Financial statement, regulatory and contract compliance, internal and operational audits, professional standards and ethical conduct; statistical and judgmental sampling; the audit-impact of information technology; audit risk and internal control structure evaluation; application of procedures in transaction cycles; audit reporting; professional issues.

ACCTG 566 – CORP DISCLOSURE (3)
ACCTG 566 provides a broad perspective of accounting that spans beyond the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) by exploring the role of financial accounting (and more broadly, corporate disclosure) in the capital markets. This includes discussions about (i) how accounting information flows in the capital markets and why it is so crucial to a well-functioning economy, (ii) key capital market stakeholders, their incentives, and their relation with corporate disclosure, (iii) various disclosure types and venues and their decision usefulness, (iv) the role of corporate governance in ensuring the provision of useful accounting information, (v) earnings management types, incentives, and settings, (vi) the standard setting process, and (vii) the role of emerging technologies in shaping corporate communications with the market. The course will also expose students to the history of accounting to provide insight into how and why accounting has morphed into its current state. Finally, throughout the course, there will be discussion and tie-ins to academic research on capital markets with an emphasis on corporate disclosure research.

Selected Publications

Aobdia D., Liu X., Na K., Wu H., "Client Restatement Announcement, Audit Office Human Capital Investment, and Audit Quality Improvements." Journal of Accounting and Economics, 2024
Aobdia D., Choudhary P., Newberger N., "The Economics of Audit Production: What Matters for Audit Quality? An empirical analysis of the role of mid-level managers within the audit firm." The Accounting Review, 2024
Aobdia D., Li Q., Na K., Wu H., "The Influence of Labor Market Power in the Audit Profession." The Accounting Review, 2024
Aobdia D., Koester A., Petacchi R., "The politics of government resource allocation: Evidence from U.S. state government awarded economic incentives." Journal of Law and Economics, 2024
Aobdia D., Petacchi R., "The Effect of Audit Firm Internal Inspections on Auditor Effort and Financial Reporting Quality." The Accounting Review, vol. 98, no. 5, 2023
Aobdia D., Dou Y., Kim J., "Public audit oversight and the originate-to-distribute model." Journal of Accounting and Economics, vol. 72, no. 1, 2021
Aobdia D., Enache L., Srivastava A., "Changes in Big N auditors’ client selection and retention strategies over time." Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, vol. 56, no. 2, 2021
Aobdia D., Siddiqui S., Vinelli A., "Heterogeneity in expertise in a credence goods setting: Evidence from audit partners." Review of Accounting Studies, vol. 26, no. 2, 2021
Aobdia D., "The economic consequences of audit firms’ quality control system deficiencies." Management Science, vol. 66, no. 7, 2020
Aobdia D., "Do practitioner assessments agree with academic proxies for audit quality? Evidence from PCAOB and internal inspections." Journal of Accounting and Economics, vol. 67, no. 1, 2019
Aobdia D., "Why shouldn’t higher IQ audit partners deliver better audits? A discussion of Kallunki, Kallunki, Niemi and Nilsson.." Contemporary Accounting Research, vol. 36, no. 1, 2019
Aobdia D., Srivastava A., Wang E., "Are Immigrants Complements or Substitutes? Evidence from the Audit Industry." Management Science, vol. 64, no. 5, 2018
Aobdia D., "Non-Compete Agreements, Product Market Competition, and Company Disclosure." Review of Accounting Studies, vol. 23, no. 1, 2018
Aobdia D., "The impact of the PCAOB individual engagement inspection process – Preliminary evidence." The Accounting Review, vol. 93, no. 4, 2018
Aobdia D., Cheng L., "Unionization, Product Market Competition and Strategic Disclosure." Journal of Accounting and Economics, vol. 65, 2018
Aobdia D., Shroff N., "Regulatory oversight and auditor market share." Journal of Accounting and Economics, vol. 63, 2017
Aobdia D., Lin C., Petacchi R., "Capital Market Consequences of Audit Partner Quality." The Accounting Review, vol. 90, no. 6, 2015
Aobdia D., "Proprietary Information Spillovers and Supplier Choice: Evidence from Auditors." Review of Accounting Studies, vol. 20, no. 4, 2015
Aobdia D., Caskey J., Ozel N., "Inter-Industry Network Structure, Information Transfer, and the Cross-Predictability of Earnings and Stock Returns." Review of Accounting Studies, vol. 19, no. 3, 2014

Editorships

Accounting and Business Research, Editorial Board, June 2024 - Present
Accounting Horizons, Editor, June 2024 - May 2027
The Accounting Review, Editorial Board, June 2023 - Present
The International Journal of Accounting, Editorial Board, January 2023 - Present
Review of Accounting Studies, Associate Editor, February 2021 - Present
Journal of Accounting and Economics, Associate Editor, January 2020 - Present
Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, Editorial Board, June 2017 - Present

Honors and Awards