Ray Ball
Citation
Raymond John Ball is one of the most influential contemporary accounting scholars, having held professorial positions in Australia at UNSW and Queensland, and in the United States at Rochester and Chicago. With a first-class honours degree and the University Medal from UNSW, Ray moved to the University of Chicago where he earned an MBA and PhD. He is currently Sidney Davidson Distinguished Service Professor of Accounting at Chicago Booth. In 1968 Ray Ball co-authored the seminal paper ‘An Empirical Evaluation of Accounting Income Numbers’ that revolutionised financial accounting research. Drawing on the developing financial economics literature and linking accounting information and share prices in a novel manner, the paper provided the foundation for modern capital markets-based research. As the inaugural recipient of the American Accounting Association’s Seminal Contributions to the Accounting Literature Award in 1986 it was observed that ‘no other paper … has played so important a role in the development of accounting research during the past thirty years’. It remains the most highly cited accounting research paper. Ray Ball’s continuing contribution to accounting scholarship and practice over 50 years has been immense. Over the period he has publishing leading-edge research in the elite accounting and finance journals on topics including the first academic acknowledgement of systematic anomalies in the theory of efficient markets, the role and measurement of conservatism in accounting, the significance of accounting and auditing within the theory of the firm, and the role of accounting information in the macro-economy. Ray has served over many years as editor of leading journals, notably the Journal of Accounting and Economics (1986-2000) and the Journal of Accounting Research (2000-2015). He was also a founding editor, in 1976, of the Australian Journal of Management and remains on the Editorial Board to this day. Ray has supervised and advised a multitude of doctoral students, many of whom have gone on to produce widely cited and influential research. Ray Ball has also had a major influence on accounting education in Australia, having been Professor of Accounting at the University of Queensland (1972-1976), and foundation professor at the Australian Graduate School of Management (UNSW) (1976-1986), where he was instrumental in the development of the first US-style PhD program in Accounting and Finance in Australia. During his time at Queensland and UNSW he was instrumental in developing rigorous empirical research in Australian capital markets, addressing issues such as the risk/return trade-off, dividend policy and taxation mechanisms. Ray Ball has been widely recognized as an outstanding educator, having received the American Accounting Association’s 2003 Outstanding Accounting Educator Award. He is a Fellow of CPA Australia, has served on the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council, and was the eighth recipient of Honorary Membership of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. In 2009, Ray Ball was inducted into the US Accounting Hall of Fame.
The Australian Accounting Hall of Fame honours Raymond John Ball as an eminent accounting researcher and thinker.
Biography
First class honours from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and doctoral studies at the University of Chicago provided the foundation for Ray Ball to become one of the most influential accounting scholars to date, working both in Australia at New South Wales and Queensland, and in the United States at Rochester and Chicago. As co-author with Philip Brown (AAHOF 2010), Ray co-authored the paper ‘An Empirical Evaluation of Accounting Income Numbers’, that revolutionized much of accounting research. By its highly novel linking of accounting information and share prices and drawing on the developing financial economics literature, the paper provided the foundations for modern capital markets-based research in accounting. The paper received the first Seminal Contribution to the Accounting Literature Award in 1968 from the American Accounting Association. The award stated "no other paper has been cited as often or has played so important a role in the development of accounting research during the past thirty years.” Ball and Brown 1968 remains the most highly cited accounting research paper to date.
While the seminal role of Ball and Brown (1968) has been repeatedly recognized, Ray’s continuing contribution to accounting scholarship and practice over 50 years has been immense. Over that period he has continued to publish leading-edge research in the very top accounting and finance journals. Some of his most important contributions have included the first academic acknowledgement of systematic anomalies in the theory of efficient markets, the role and measurement of conservatism in accounting, the significance of accounting and auditing within the theory of the firm, and the role of accounting information in the macro-economy.
Ray Ball’s contributions to accounting research have also been via many years of editorships at leading journals, notably the Journal of Accounting and Economics (1986-2000) and the Journal of Accounting Research (2000-2015). He has also been responsible for the supervision and advising of many PhD students, many of whom have produced widely cited and influential research. Apart from his enormous contribution to accounting research, Ray has been widely recognized as an outstanding educator, including as a recipient of the American Accounting Association’s 2003 Outstanding Accounting Educator Award. Ray has served professional and regulatory organizations in many capacities. He is a Fellow of CPA Australia, has served on the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council, and was the eighth person to receive Honorary Membership of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). He continues to serve on the Financial Reporting Faculty Advisory Group of the ICAEW.
Ray has had a major influence on accounting education in Australia, having been Professor of Accounting at the University of Queensland from 1972 to 1976, and then serving as Foundation Professor at the Australian Graduate School of Management (UNSW), where he was instrumental in the development of the first US-style PhD program in Accounting and Finance in Australia. He was also a founding editor of the Australian Journal of Management and has continued as a member of the Editorial Board to the present day. During his time at Queensland and UNSW, Ray played a foundational role in the development of rigorous empirical research in Australian capital markets, addressing issues such as the risk/return trade-off, dividend policy and taxation mechanisms.
In addition to honours noted above, the American Accounting Association has further acknowledged Ray Ball’s contribution with the award of Distinguished International Lecturer in 1999, Outstanding Accounting Educator in 2003, joint-Presidential Scholar with Philip Brown in 2012 and the Financial Accounting Research Section Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. Recognition has also come with the award of Doctors Honoris Causa from Helsinki School of Economics in 1991, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven 1994, University of Queensland 2002, University of London 2008 and the University of New South Wales, 2010.
Ray Ball is currently the Sidney Davidson Distinguished Service Professor of Accounting in the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. In 2009, he was inducted as the 85th member of the US Accounting Hall of Fame.