Ross Leslie Watts

Ross Leslie Watts is the Erwin H. Schnell Professor of Management Emeritus and Professor of Accounting Emeritus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 1971-2005, he was assistant professor, associate professor, and chaired professor at the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Rochester. He had visiting appointments at the University of Otago, Northwestern University, the University of New South Wales, and Monash University. His PhD is from the University of Chicago.

Soon after becoming faculty members at the University of Rochester, Watts and his frequent co-author, Jerry Zimmerman, began changing the way accounting academics thought about the role of accounting, the research questions they posed, and the way they addressed those questions. The role of academic research changed from developing normative prescriptions to empirically testing predictions based on contracting theory. Papers published by Watts and Zimmerman in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s provided researchers the framework to address fundamental questions about why managers manage earnings, make voluntary disclosures, lobby against proposals that would constrain their accounting choices, and value external audits.

Early in their academic careers (1979), Watts and Zimmerman founded the Journal of Accounting & Economics (JAE). The journal met the needs of an expanding number of methodologically skilled PhDs entering an academic market in which The Accounting Review and Journal of Accounting Research were the primary outlets for publishing high-quality research. JAE expanded new academics opportunities to publish their empirical and analytical work in a journal that soon became one of the top three journals in accounting. The 1986 publication of Positive Accounting Theory (with Zimmerman) introduced contracting theory to a broader audience of educators and their students.

In 1994, Watts co-founded the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), and since then has served as Director of the Accounting Research Network (ARN). SSRN, which has grown to include sixty distinct discipline-specific networks (including ARN), has improved the quality and quantity of research by making unpublished working papers readily available to researchers worldwide.

One of his most enduring and far-reaching contributions to accounting scholarship and education is his former students. During his career, Watts chaired twenty five PhD dissertations and was a dissertation committee member for eighteen other students. Many of his academic progeny are chaired professors at elite universities, prolific authors, members of editorial boards, frequent workshop presenters, and, likely most importantly to Watts, now mentors to their own PhD students.

Ross Leslie Watts is the 120th inductee to The Accounting Hall of Fame.