Caroline S
- Research Program Mentor
PhD at University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill (UNC Chapel Hill)
Expertise
accounting, innovation, finance
Bio
My path to accounting academia began when I served as a research assistant to the head biostatistician in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders (CEED) my junior and senior years of college. Simultaneously, I was taking my first business classes at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. While I enjoyed the creativity and critical thinking required to answer a research question rigorously, my accounting classes really piqued my interest. As a result, I traded my internship with CEED for an internship in EY’s Indirect Tax department and enrolled in UNC’s Masters of Accounting program immediately after graduation. However, I found myself missing the opportunity to satisfy my intellectual curiosity by asking and answering important questions through rigorous empirical study. In 2017, I entered UNC’s accounting PhD program where I have had the opportunity to marry these interests by asking and answering important questions such as “How does patent disclosure effect follow-on innovation?”, “Are state-level R&D tax credits effective at increasing firms’ total R&D expenditures?”, and “Do employee production targets have spillover effects on co-workers’ productivity?” I have also immensely enjoyed contributing to the accounting field by teaching an undergraduate financial accounting course and serving as a teaching assistant for MBA courses in both financial and managerial accounting during my time at UNC. I am looking forward to joining my interests in accounting research and teaching by mentoring the next class of Polygence students. Outside of research, I enjoy reading, playing board games, and travelling. My favorite board games of the moment include "the Game", "Monopoly Deal", and "Pandemic", although the last one hits a little too close to home! My travels have included a six-week stay in India, and several shorter trips to England, Scotland, Ireland, Switzerland, and Germany among others. I am also actively involved in local animal rescue in several capacities including as a cat foster and application screener. I'm looking forward to meeting you, learning more about you, and working together on a project you're passionate about!Project ideas
Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.
Real Effects of Environmental Disclosures
An important strain of accounting research examines whether accounting has "real effects". For example, researchers may investigate whether accounting regulations affect firms' investment decisions, employees' career decisions or consumers' purchasing decisions. Many accounting regulations require firms to disclose additional information about their operations in the financial statements. For this reason, accounting researchers are particularly interested in the real effects of disclosures. Recently, Google started disclosing the carbon dioxide emissions for flights in its search engine results, as well as whether those emissions are above or below average for a flight with that departure airport and destination. In this research project, I examine whether this environmental disclosure effects individual's flight choices.
Coding skills
python, SAS, Stata, RTeaching experience
I designed and taught a virtual, 10-week Introduction to Financial Accounting course to 37 undergraduate students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Students commented that “the format of the course material allowed for an ease in learning the harder materials”, that the course was “organized and manageable without being intimidating” and that I was “one of the best instructors [she] has had at UNC”.Credentials
Work experience
Ernst & Young (2016 - 2016)
Indirect Tax InternUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2020 - 2020)
InstructorUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2015 - 2021)
Teaching AssistantUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2014 - 2016)
Undergraduate Research AssistantEducation
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill (UNC Chapel Hill)
BS Bachelor of Science (2016)
Business Administration, MathematicsUniversity of North Carolina - Chapel Hill (UNC Chapel Hill)
MA Master of Arts (2017)
AccountingUniversity of North Carolina - Chapel Hill (UNC Chapel Hill)
MA Master of Arts (2019)
Management ScienceUniversity of North Carolina - Chapel Hill (UNC Chapel Hill)
PhD Doctor of Philosophy
Business Administration (Accounting)