web server statistics
American Accounting Association

AAA/Deloitte

Wildman Medal Award
History and Criteria

In 1978–79, Deloitte, Haskins & Sells (who then became Deloitte & Touche and now Deloitte) joined with the AAA to offer the AAA-DH&S Wildman Medal (then the AAA-D&T Wildman Medal and now AAA-D Wildman Medal). A description of the purpose of this program follows:

Deloitte ("the Firm") attaches great importance to the contribution that research can make to the development of the accounting profession. While the Firm recognizes that there is a need for fundamental research in our field as in other branches of learning, it particularly wishes to encourage research, defined broadly, (e.g., empirical, descriptive or theoretical) or the application of research which may be expected to have practical implications for the problems of the public accounting profession in the relatively near future.

This was the aim, too, of John R. Wildman, a partner in the Firm from 1918 to 1938, who was also a professor of accounting and department head at New York University and the first president of the American Association of University Instructors in Accounting, the body which later became the American Accounting Association (the "AAA").

The firm decided that 1978, the centenary of John Wildman's birth and the fiftieth anniversary of the Firm's Foundation was an appropriate time to collaborate with the American Accounting Association in founding the Wildman Medal, to commemorate their former partner and to encourage research relevant to the professional practice of accounting to which much of his life was devoted. It is hoped that the medal, and the financial award which will go with it, will come to be regarded as a signal recognition of excellence in this field, and would encourage researchers, especially among younger academic accountants, to turn their endeavors towards solving some of the problems which beset public accounting.

The rules that should govern the award are set out in the following numbered paragraphs.

  1. With financial support from the Deloitte Foundation (formerly the Deloitte & Touche Foundation), the American Accounting Association instituted an annual award, the American Accounting Association - Deloitte Wildman Medal. A monetary award will also be made to the winner(s) of the medal.
  2. Subject to the further conditions as to eligibility set out in the following paragraphs, the medal and the related financial award is awarded to the author or authors of the article, monograph, book or other work, reflecting the results of their research or the application of the research of others, published during the five calendar years preceding the year of the award which is adjudged to have made or be likely to make the most significant contribution to the advancement of the public practice of accountancy (including audit, tax and management services.) Note that in some cases a paper may be accepted for publication in a given calendar year and then may actually appear in a volume that carries an earlier calendar year as a publication date. In such cases the year that the particular issue was actually published should be the date used to determine eligibility.
  3. A financial award of $5,000 accompanies the medal. In the event of multiple award winners, each recipient would receive $2,500 (up to three recipients; $7,500 maximum per year).
  4. Selection of the winner(s) will be made by a selection committee to be appointed each year by the President or President-Elect of the American Accounting Association. One member of this committee will be nominated by the Deloitte Foundation if it so elects.
  5. The committee may at its discretion decide that in any particular year no award will be made.
  6. The Deloitte Foundation will periodically decide whether to extend this program.

Council members shall be asked in writing to suggest nominees for the Wildman Medal. The Screening Committee for the Notable Contributions to Accounting Literature Award shall be encouraged to submit candidates for the Wildman Award to the Wildman Committee.

It is required that the winner(s) be a member of the AAA on February 1 of the year in which the published work is being considered. In the case of co-authored work, at least one author must meet the AAA membership test. However, the monetary award and gold medal(s) will go only to the author(s) who do meet the membership test.

Addendum:
At its meeting in March 1990, the AAA Executive Committee voted that the Wildman Award and the Notable Contributions to Accounting Literature Award serve different purposes and that it would be rare that one work would be the recipient of both of these awards.

Previous Recipients of the Wildman Medal:

2009
Press Release

Mary Barth, Leslie Hodder and Stephen Stubben
“Fair Value Accounting for Liabilities and Own Credit Risk,”
May 2008 issue of The Accounting Review


2008
Press Release

Robert D. Allen, Dana R. Hermanson, Thomas M. Kozloski and Robert J. Ramsay
“Auditor Risk Assessment:  Insights from the Academic Literature”


2007

Vivien Beattie, Richard Brandt, and Stella Fearnley
"Behind Closed Doors: What Company Audit Is Really About"


2006

William R. Kinney, Zoe-Vonna Palmrose, and Susan W. Scholz
"Auditor Independence, Non-Audit Services, and Restatements: Was the U.S. Government Right?"


2005

George A. Plesko and Lillian F. Mills
"Bridging the Reporting Gap: A Proposal for More Iinformative Reconciling of Book and Tax Income"
National Tax Journal
(2003).


2004

Mark W. Nelson, John A. Elliott, and Robin L. Tarpley
"Evidence from Auditors about Managers' and Auditors' Earnings Management Decisions"
The Accounting Review (2002 Supplement)


2003

Zoe-Vonna Palmrose
"
Studies in Accounting Research #33, Empirical Research in Auditor Litigation: Considerations and Data"
2000, American Accounting Association


2002

Stephen Penman
"Financial Statement Analysis and Security Valuation"
2001, Irwin/McGraw-Hill


2001

Robert S. Kaplan


2000

Baruch Lev


1999

William R. Kinney, Jr.


1998

Gerald A. Feltham and James A. Ohlson


1997

Krishna Palepu, Paul Healy, and Victor Bernard (awarded posthumously)


1996

Mary Barth


1995

David Solomons (awarded posthumously)


1994

Arthur Wyatt


1993

John W. Hill


1992

Robert K. Elliot


1991

Mark A. Wolfson


1990

A. Rashad Abdel-khalik and Ira Solomon


1989

James C. Treadway, Jr.


1988

H. Thomas Johnson and Robert S. Kaplan


1987

Barry E. Cushing and James K. Loebbecke


1986

Frederick D.S. Choi and Gerhard G. Mueller


1985

William H. Beaver and Wayne Landsman


1984

Henry R. Jaenicke


1983

William R. Kinney, Jr.


1982

Theodore J. Mock and Jerry L. Turner


1981

Wanda A. Wallace


1980

Donald A. Leslie, Albert D. Teitlebaum, and Rodney J. Anderson


1979

Loyd C. Heath

Back

© 2008 American Accounting Association All rights reserved.