Matthias Breuer
Columbia Business School | Kravis Hall 1162 | 665 W 130th St | New York, NY 10027
Vita
About me
I am an Associate Professor of Business in the Accounting Division of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business and a Visiting Associate Professor of Accounting at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business (for the academic years 2023/24 and 2024/25). In my research, I examine issues of corporate transparency and information verification, with a particular focus on the role of regulation in addressing corporate information issues. I am fortunate that my research has been recognized with multiple awards (e.g., the 2023 Notable Contributions to the Accounting Literature Award of the American Accounting Association and the 2019 and 2021 Best Paper Awards of the American Accounting Association’s FARS Midyear Meetings), presented at leading universities and conferences, and published in reputable journals.
I am currently a Research Fellow at the TRR 266 Accounting for Transparency, an Affiliate Fellow of the Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, was a Junior Fellow of the Stigler Center from 2018-2021, and a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Studies on the Foundations of Law and Finance at Goethe University Frankfurt in 2022. I have been a member of the organizing committees of several conferences, including the Columbia Junior Accounting Faculty Conference (2019-2023), the Junior Accounting Theory Conference (2022), and the interdisciplinary Symposium on Private Firms: Reporting, Financing, and the Aggregate Economy (2022). My service as an ad-hoc reviewer and discussant for numerous top-tier journals and conferences has been recognized with a number of awards.
At CBS, I teach the Financial Accounting course in the core MBA program and a course on Empirical Methods in Accounting Research in the PhD program. I serve as the Core Course Coordinator for Financial Accounting at CBS and received the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence in the Core in 2021.
Education
2018 - PhD Business (Accounting), University of Chicago Booth School of Business
2012 - MSc Accounting and Finance, London School of Economics and Political Science (United Kingdom)
2011 - BSc Business Administration, WHU―Otto Beisheim School of Management (Germany)
CV
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Contact
Email: mb4468@gsb.columbia.edu
SSRN website: www.ssrn.com/author_id=2424935
Columbia website: www8.gsb.columbia.edu/cbs-directory/detail/mb4468
Research
Accepted and Published Papers
Using and Interpreting Fixed Effects Models
with Ed deHaan, Journal of Accounting Research (forthcoming)
Topics: Methods
Bridging Theory and Empirical Research in Accounting
with Eva Labro, Haresh Sapra, and Anastasia Zakolyukina, Journal of Accounting Research (forthcoming)
Invited comment based on panel discussion at JAR Conference (2023)
Topics: Methods
Another Way Forward: Comments on Ohlson's Critique of Empirical Accounting Research
Invited comment, Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium (forthcoming)
Topics: Methods
Accounting for Uncertainty: An Application of Bayesian Methods to Accruals Models
with Harm Schütt, Review of Accounting Studies (2023) [Data & Code]
Topics: Earnings, Methods
Bartik Instruments: An Applied Introduction
solo-authored, Journal of Financial Reporting (2022) [Slides] [Code]
Prepared for and presented at 2021 FARS/JFR Research Methods Virtual Mini-Conference
Topics: Methods
with Katharina Hombach and Maximilian Müller, The Accounting Review (2022)
Topics: Disclosure, Regulation
How Does Financial-Reporting Regulation Affect Industry-wide Resource Allocation?
solo-authored, Journal of Accounting Research (2021) [Data & Code] [Video]
Best Paper Award (FARS Midyear Meeting 2019 - presented in plenary session: Top Picks of the 19 FARS Editors)
Featured in the Chicago Booth Review (April 2018, February 2019, May 2023), on the Stigler Center's ProMarket Blog, and on the Oxford Business Law Blog
Topics: Disclosure, Auditing, Regulation
Investment Dynamics and Earnings-Return Properties: A Structural Approach
with David Windisch, Journal of Accounting Research (2019) [Data & Code]
Best Paper Award (Annual Accounting Conference 2018, Berlin)
MLP-Young Talent Award Nominee of the Accounting Section (VHB - German Academic Association for Business Research, 2020)
Topics: Earnings, Valuation, Methods
How Does Financial-Reporting Regulation Affect Firms' Banking?
with Katharina Hombach and Maximilian Müller, Review of Financial Studies (2018)
MLP-Young Talent Award Nominee of the Accounting Section (VHB - German Academic Association for Business Research, 2019)
Topics: Disclosure, Auditing, Regulation
Working Papers
Learning to Disclose: Disclosure Dynamics in the 1890s Streetcar Industry
with Thomas Bourveau and Robert Stoumbos [Video]
Best Paper Award (FARS Midyear Meeting 2021)
Supported by research grant from Richard Paul Richman Center for Business, Law, and Public Policy at Columbia University
Topics: Disclosure, Methods
Reporting Regulation and Corporate Innovation
with Christian Leuz and Steven Vanhaverbeke [Video]
NBER Working Paper No. 26291 and DFG Center for Advanced Studies - Foundations of Law & Finance (LawFin) Working Paper No. 8
Featured in the NBER Conference on Economic Analysis of Regulation (Spring 2022), the Symposium on Private Firms: Reporting, Financing, and the Aggregate Economy, the Chicago Booth Review, and on the VoxEU blog
Topics: Disclosure, Regulation
The Economics of Firms' Public Disclosure: Theory and Evidence
with Katharina Hombach and Maximilian Müller
Best Theory Paper Award (6th International Research Forum on Mittelstand at University of Mannheim)
Topics: Disclosure, Methods
Uneven Regulation and Economic Reallocation: Evidence from Transparency Regulation
with Patricia Breuer
Best Conference Paper Award (VHB - German Academic Association for Business Research, Centenary and Annual Meeting, 2022)
Topics: Disclosure, Regulation
Corporate Websites: A New Measure of Voluntary Disclosure
with Romain Boulland and Thomas Bourveau [Data & Code]
Topics: Disclosure, Methods
Public Company Auditing Around the Securities Exchange Act
with Thomas Bourveau, Jeroen Koenraadt, and Robert Stoumbos
Topics: Auditing, Regulation
How Private Companies Attract the Market's Attention
with Thomas Bourveau and Maximilian Muhn
Topics: Disclosure
Audit Mandates, Audit Firms, and Auditors
with Anthony Le and Felix Vetter
Stigler Center Working Paper
Featured on the Stigler Center's ProMarket Blog
Topics: Auditing, Regulation
Minority Representation at Work
with Wei Cai, Anthony Le, and Felix Vetter
Topics: Governance, Regulation
Work in Progress
Cash vs. Accrual Accounting: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment
with Pietro Bonetti and Maximilian Muhn
Topics: Earnings
Dynamic Investment and Accounting Conservatism
with David Windisch
Topics: Earnings, Valuation
Uncertain Earnings Betas
with Atif Ellahie and Harm Schütt
Topics: Earnings, Valuation
Other Materials
Presentations & Discussions
JAR Conference (2023): Video of Panel Discussion "Bridging Theory and Empirical Research in Accounting: Challenges and Opportunities"
Symposium on Private Firms: Reporting, Financing, and the Aggregate Economy (2022): Video on "Reporting Regulation and Corporate Innovation"
NBER Conference on Economic Analysis of Regulation (2022): Video on "Reporting Regulation and Corporate Innovation"
Egyptian Online Seminars in Business, Accounting and Economics (2021): Video on "Uneven Regulation and Economic Reallocation"
EAA PhD Forum (2021): Video & Slides on "Structural Estimation in Accounting Research: An Applied Primer"
AES Weekly Webinars (2021): Video on "Learning to Disclose: Disclosure Dynamics in the 1890s Streetcar Industry"
FARS/JFR Research Methods Virtual Mini-Conference (2021): Slides on "Bartik Instruments: An Applied Introduction"
CBS Program on Financial Studies (2019): Video on "How Does Financial-Reporting Regulation Affect Industry-wide Resource Allocation?"
Code & Data
Note: Code & data are shared to facilitate academic research. No guarantee for correctness. Please acknowledge use and use at your own risk.
Code & website measure for "Corporate Websites: A New Measure of Voluntary Disclosure"
Code & regulatory scope measure for "How Does Financial-Reporting Regulation Affect Industry-wide Resource Allocation?"
Code & model-averaged accruals for "Accounting for Uncertainty: An Application of Bayesian Methods to Accruals Models"
Code for "Bartik Instruments: An Applied Introduction"