Ulrich Schäfer

Professor of Accounting and Transparency

Department of Accounting

Universitätsstraße 15, 8010 Graz

Email: ulrich.schaefer@uni-graz.at

Phone: +43 316 380 3646

Research statement

I joined the University of Graz in 2026, following appointments at the University of Vienna, the University of Zurich, and the University of Göttingen.

My research lies at the intersection of managerial and financial accounting. Using economic theory and analytical modeling, I examine how managers’ explicit and implicit incentives shape their discretionary disclosure decisions. Empirical research has shown that managers strategically use corporate disclosures to pursue their own objectives. These findings suggest that managers’ reporting objectives have important implications for the quality of mandatory and voluntary disclosures, as well as for capital market efficiency, including allocative efficiency, price informativeness, and the cost of capital.

I view accounting theory as an essential tool for understanding the economic forces underlying corporate reporting decisions. By complementing empirical evidence, theoretical research can inform disclosure regulation and contribute to more transparent and efficient capital markets. Emerging developments in ESG reporting and the digitalization of corporate disclosures create new challenges and opportunities for theoretical research. My publications explore how managerial incentives and firms' external information environment shape corporate disclosure and market efficiency. They also examine the real effects of accounting regulation. My research has been published in leading international accounting journals, including the Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, and Contemporary Accounting Research.

I serve on the Editorial Board of the European Accounting Review and as a member of the Standing Scientific Committee for Analytical Modeling of the European Accounting Association (EAA).

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