Ethan C. Rouen

Relying on empirical archival methodologies—as well as techniques in data science—to develop and structure new sources of data by which to approach questions of looming disclosure changes, Professor Rouen has focused on one of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s most controversial recent disclosure requirements, the CEO pay ratio. In his research, he examines the ratio of CEO compensation to mean employee compensation, and its relation to future firm performance. Professor Rouen’s results are among the first to provide evidence that differing types of pay disparity can have differing effects on employees and firms, a finding that is important to politicians, regulators, and investors preparing to understand a radical new disclosure. Professor Rouen has also studied financial statement errors. His research shows that reported financial statement numbers conform to the mathematical distribution defined by Benford’s Law (i.e., the law of first digits). After creating a measure of divergence from conformity to the law as a proxy for data quality, Professor Rouen has found evidence that this measure is associated with proxies for accruals-based accounting quality and earnings management. In addition, the measure is predictive of Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Releases. He has received several awards for his work in this area, and the measure of financial statement errors he and his co-authors developed has been used by the S.E.C., as well as data providers and investment banks. The impact of the corporate tax regime in the United States on the relation between the performance of U.S. corporations and the overall economy is another of Professor Rouen’s interests. This examination is timely as world leaders debate how to discourage corporate tax shifting, and U.S. multinationals wrestle with managing the more than $2 trillion in cash they hold abroad. Professor Rouen has documented that as the domestic corporate tax rate rises relative to tax rates of other countries, fewer corporate profits flow into domestic investment. The results provide valuable evidence for policy makers examining how to tax the foreign profits of domestic companies.

Professor Rouen teaches the Elective Curriculum course Reimaging Capitalism.

Winner of the 2024 Best Paper Award at the Fox and Haskayne Accounting Conference for "Sustainability Meets Substance: Evaluating ESG Reports in the Context of 10-Ks and Firm Performance” with Kunal Sachdeva and Aaron Yoon.

Awarded Best Junior Contribution to the Theory and Practice of Intangibles, Intellectual Capital, and Sustainability by the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management at the 2022 EIASM Interdisciplinary Conference for “Regulated Human Capital Disclosures” with Thomas Bourveau, Maliha Chowdhury, and Anthony Le.

Winner of the 2022 Innovation in Research Award from the Diversity Section of the American Accounting Association for “Inclusive Managers” with Wei Cai and Yuan Zou.

Winner of the 2018 Best Dissertation Award from the Financial Accounting and Reporting Section of the American Accounting Association for "Rethinking Measurement of Pay Disparity and Its Relation to Firm Performance" (Ph.D. diss., Columbia Business School, 2017).

Winner of the 2017 Deloitte Foundation Wildman Medal from the American Accounting Association for “Financial Statement Irregularities: Evidence from the Distributional Properties of Financial Statement Numbers” (Review of Accounting Studies, 2015) with Dan Amiram and Zahn Bozanic.

Received a 2016 Werner L. and Adriana Chilton Doctoral Fellowship from Columbia Business School.

Selected as a Finalist for the 2015 Columbia University Presidential Teaching Award.

Received the 2015 Third-Year Best Student Award from Columbia Business School.

Received a 2015 Institute of Management Accountants Doctoral Student Grant.

Selected as a 2015 Doctoral Fellow by the W. Edwards Deming Center for Quality, Productivity, and Competitiveness at Columbia Business School.

Selected as a 2015 AAA/Deloitte/J. Michael Cook Doctoral Consortium Fellow by the American Accounting Association.

Received a 2015 Paul and Sandra Montrone Doctoral Fellowship from Columbia Business School.

Received a 2015 Deloitte Foundation Doctoral Fellowship.

Winner of the 2014 Midyear Meeting Best Paper Award from the American Accounting Association, Financial Accounting and Reporting Section for “Financial Statement Irregularities: Evidence from the Distributional Properties of Financial Statement Numbers” (Review of Accounting Studies, 2015) with Dan Amiram and Zahn Bozanic.

Runner-up for the 2024 Best Paper Award from the Journal of Corporate Finance for "The Stock Market Valuation of Human Capital Creation" with Matthias Regier (April 2023).