Photo                     Larry R. Davis
                                                        Associate Professor of Accounting

Phone:        906-487-3081
E-mail:      LRDavis@accountant.net

Address:    School of Business
                       Michigan Technological University
                       Houghton, Michigan 49931-1295

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Biographical Information

I was born and raised in Hamilton Ohio, a town of about 70,000 just north of Cincinnati. Having grown up in hot, humid southwestern Ohio, I am probably one of the few people who can honestly say that I came here, in part, for the weather.

 I attended Miami University (the ORIGINAL one, in Oxford Ohio), graduating with a BS in accounting in December of 1978. In January of 1979, I joined the public accounting firm of Wipfli, Ullrich and Company as a staff auditor. While an auditor, I was involved with both financial institution and manufacturing clients and passed the CPA exam in November of 1979. In September of 1980, I entered graduate school at Indiana University, receiving my PhD in accounting in the Spring of 1986. For the next six years I was a member of the accounting faculty at the University of Notre Dame, where I met my wife. After serving as a visiting professor for one year at the University of Minnesota,I joined the faculty at Michigan Tech in the fall of 1993 as an Associate Professor of Accounting.

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Research Interests

My research interests center on judgment in accounting and auditing. My early research, and some of current research, concentrates on cognitive aspects of judgment. For instance, one piece of research looked at how lending officers reacted to variations in the form of disclosure for contingent liabilities and unusual losses. More recently, my resea rch has focused on what I broadly categorize as social factors that may influence judgment. For instance, one of my recent publications examined the relation between audit and nonaudit fees received by public accounting firms, and the motivation for comp romising independence that may be produced by providing nonaudit services to audit clients.

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Teaching Interest

I currently am teaching primarily in the Auditing and Financial Accounting areas. I have also taught managerial accounting, accounting systems and auditing. About the only things I haven't taught are governmental and tax.

I have two basic objectives in teaching. The first is to provide my students with an understanding of contemporary accounting practice - 'the rules' they will need to know to obtain professional certification (e.g., become a CPA) and immediately be productive upon entry in to the accounting profession. My second objective is to teach my students that accounting is as much the art of judgment as it is the science of financial measurement, and to help them deve lop their critical thinking abilities. As financial information specialists, accountants must be able to analyze and summarize constantly changing and increasingly complex financial activities.

 Follow this link to handouts and other materials I use in my classes.......
 

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Personal Interests

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This home page is maintained by Larry Davis and was last updated on 03/04/2000. Comments about this page may be sent to Larry at: lrdavis@mtu.edu . Although we will attempt to keep this information accurate, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information provided.