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 then the AAA-Deloitte Wildman Medal). In 2016, the award became the Deloitte Foundation Wildman Medal Award.

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 toward solving some of the problems which beset public accounting.

The following rules govern the award:

1. Subject to the further conditions as to eligibility set out in the following paragraphs, the medal and the related financial award is awarded annually at the American Accounting Association’s Annual Meeting to the author(s) 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 (2022) which is judged to have made or will be likely to make the most significant contribution to the advancement of the practice of public 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.
2. 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).
3. Selection of the winner(s) will be made by a selection committee to be appointed each year by the Council Committee on Awards Committees of the American Accounting Association. One member of this committee will be nominated by the Deloitte Foundation, if it so elects.
4. The committee may, at its discretion, decide that in any particular year no award will be made.
5. The Deloitte Foundation will periodically decide whether to extend this program.
6. 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.

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

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 Winners:

2021
Press Release
 

Trevor S. Harris, Urooj Khan, and Doron Nissim

"The Expected Rate of Credit Losses on Banks’ Loan Portfolios" published in the September 2018 issue of The Accounting Review.

2020
Press Release

Lori Shefchik Bhaskar, Patrick Hopkins, and Joe H. Schroeder
"An Investigation of Auditors’ Judgments When Companies Release Earnings Before Audit Completion" published in the May 2019 issue of The Journal of Accounting Research.

2019
Press Release

Emily E. Griffith, Jacqueline S. Hammersley, and Kathryn Kadous
"Audits of Complex Estimates as Verification of Management Numbers: How Institutional Pressures Shape Practice" published in the Fall 2015 issue of Contemporary Accounting Research.

2018
Press Release

Susan Scholz
“Financial Restatement Trends in the United States: 2003-2012,” published by the Center for Audit Quality, July 2014 

2017
Press Release

    Dan Amiram, Zahn Bozanic, and Ethan Rouen
    "Financial Statement Errors: Evidence from the Distributional Properties of Financial Statement Numbers," published in the December 2015 issue of the Review of Accounting Studies.

2016
Press Release

Mary E. Barth, Wayne R. Landsman, Mark H. Lang, and Christopher D. Williams
"Are IFRS-based and US GAAP-based accounting amounts comparable?," published in the August 2012 issue of the Journal of Accounting Economics.

2015
Press Release

G. Bradley Bennett and Richard C. Hatfield
"The Effect of the Social Mismatch Between Staff Auditors and Client Management on the Collection of Audit Evidence," published in the January 2013 issue of The Accounting Review.

2014
Press Release

Joseph F. Brazel, Tina D. Carpenter and J. Gregory Jenkins
"Auditors' Use of Brainstorming in the Consideration of Fraud: Reports from the Field" published in the July 2010 issue of The Accounting Review.

2013
Press Release

Samuel Ranzilla, Robert Chevalier, George Herrmann, Steven M. Glover and Douglas F. Prawitt
"Elevating Professional Judgment in Auditing and Accounting: The KPMG Professional Judgment Framework. 2011."

2012
Press Release

Jean C. Bedard and Lynford Graham
"Detection and Severity Classifications of Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Internal Control Deficiencies." The Accounting Review 86, (May 2011): 825-855

2011
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Luzi Hail, Christian Leuz, and Peter Wysocki
"Accounting Convergence and the Potential Adoption of IFRS by the U.S. Part 1: Conceptual Underpinnings and Economic Analysis." Accounting Horizons 24:355-394. "Global Accounting Convergence and the Potential Adoption of IFRS by the U.S. Part 2: Political Factors and Future Scenarios for U.S. Accounting Standards." Accounting Horizons 24:567-588.

2010
Press Release

William R. Baber and Angela K. Gore
"Consequences of GAAP Disclosure Regulation: Evidence from Municipal Debt Issues"
May 2008 issue of The Accounting Review

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
 

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