Jerold Zimmerman

Jerold Zimmerman

Bittner Emeritus Professor
Area(s) of Expertise
Accounting
Bio

Zimmerman is a founding editor of the Journal of Accounting and Economics. He was also a distinguished faculty member of the American Accounting Association’s Doctoral Consortium, and a visiting professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology,Hong Kong University, and Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is on the board of directors of IEC Electronics and on the company’s audit and compensation committees.

Research Interests
Professor Zimmerman’s research and teaching interests involve financial and managerial accounting. In 2004, he and Professor Ross L. Watts (at M.I.T.) received the American Accounting Association Seminal Contribution to the Accounting Literature Award, the most prestigious research award in the field of accounting. They received the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Award in 1979 and 1980 for their joint papers. Zimmerman was the 1978 winner of the Competitive Manuscript Award, sponsored by the American Accounting As­so­ciation, for his paper, “The Costs and Benefits of Cost Allocation.” The Watts/Zimmerman research, which has come to be called “positive theories of accounting,” seeks to understand the costs and benefits of various accounting procedures. He and Watts co-authored a book, Positive Accounting Theory, published by Prentice-Hall in 1986.
Zimmerman’s current research includes: “Asym­­metric Sensitivity of C.E.O. Cash Compensation to Stock Returns,” with Andrew J. Leone and Joanna Shuang Wu (Journal of Accounting and Economics); “Unintended Consequences of Granting Small Firms Exemptions from Securities Regulation: Evidence from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act,” with Feng Gao and Joanna Shuang Wu (Journal of Accounting Research); and “The Joint Effects of Materiality Thresholds and Voluntary Disclosure Incentives on Firms’ Disclosure Decisions,” with Shane Heitzman and Charles Wasley (Journal of Accounting and Economics 2008 Conference).
Teaching Interests

Financial and Managerial Accounting

Publications
Managerial Economics and Organizational Architecture
2021
McGraw-Hill Irwin
Issue
7th
Idiosyncratic Shocks to Firm Underlying Economics and Abnormal Accruals
2017
The Accounting Review
Issue
2
Volume
92
Managerial Economics and Organizational Architecture
2016
McGraw Hill
Issue
6th
The Disclose or Abstain Incentive to Issue Management Guidance
2016
Journal of Law, Finance, and Accounting.
Issue
1
Volume
1
The disclose or abstain incentive to issue management guidance
2014
Journal of Law, Finance, and Accounting, Forthcoming
Managerial Economics and Organizational Architecture 6th ed
2014
McGraw Hill Irwin
Issue
6
Myth: External Financial Reporting Quality Has a 1st Order Effect on Firm Value, Accounting Horizons 27 (Dec. 2013) pp. 887-894. (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2202207)
2013
Corporate Governance Myths
2010
Journal of Accounting and Economics
Corporate governance myths: comments on Armstrong, Guay, and Weber
2010
Journal of Accounting and Economics
Issue
2
Volume
50
The joint effects of materiality thresholds and voluntary disclosure incentives on firms’ disclosure decisions
2010
Journal of Accounting and Economics
Issue
1
Volume
49
The Joint Effects of Materiality Thresholds and Voluntary Disclosure Incentives on Firms’ Disclosure Decisions
2010
Journal of Accounting and Economics
A Unified Framework of Management Earnings Forecasts: Disclose or Abstain, Voluntary, and Opportunistic Incentives
2010
Using Organizational Architecture to Lead Change*
2009
Journal of Applied Corporate Finance
Issue
2
Volume
21
Unintended Consequences of Granting Small Firms Exemptions from Securities Regulation: Evidence from Sarbanes-Oxley Act
2009
Journal of Accounting Research
Economía empresarial y arquitectura de la organización
2005
McGraw-Hill
Corporate governance, ethics, and organizational architecture
2003
Journal of Applied Corporate Finance
Issue
3
Volume
15
Business ethics and organizational architecture
2002
Journal of Banking & Finance
Issue
9
Volume
26
Designing organizations to create value: From strategy to structure
2002
McGraw Hill Professional
Changing incentives in a multitask environment: evidence from a top-tier business school
2001
Journal of Corporate finance
Issue
4
Volume
7
La teoría del juego en la estrategia empresarial
2001
Harvard Deusto Business Review
Issue
103
Managerial economics and organizational architecture
2001
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Volume
7
An introduction to game theory and business strategy
2000
Journal of Applied Corporate Finance
Issue
2
Volume
13
Teaching the Economics of Organizations
1999
Financial Practice and Education
Volume
9
Management fads and organizational architecture
1997
Journal of Applied Corporate Finance
Issue
2
Volume
10
Organizational architecture: A managerial economics approach
1996
Irwin
The economics of organizational architecture
1995
Journal of Applied Corporate Finance
Issue
2
Volume
8
Transfer pricing and the control of internal corporate transactions
1995
Journal of Applied Corporate Finance
Issue
2
Volume
8
Ethics, incentives, and organizational design
1994
Journal of Applied Corporate Finance
Issue
2
Volume
7