What Do Resumes Tell Us About Accounting Rookie Job Candidates’ Research Potential?
Prof. Bin KE
Professor of Accounting and Provost’s Chair, National University of Singapore
Date: 7 February 2025 (Friday)
Time: 14:30 – 16:00
Venue: E22-2002
Host: Prof. Feng TANG, Assistant Professor in Accounting
Abstract
Universities allocate significant resources each year to recruit faculty from PhD programs, yet many hires fail to achieve tenure, often due to insufficient research productivity. This study explores whether the faculty recruitment process can be enhanced by using machine learning to identify candidates with higher research potential earlier in the hiring process. Focusing on the accounting rookie job market, we develop a research productivity prediction model that leverages readily available job application materials: (i) candidate resumes, (ii) the rankings of their educational institutions and the research productivity of their dissertation advisors and coauthors, and (iii) their job market papers. Despite human recruiters having access to broader information than our prediction model, our model consistently outperforms traditional human judgment in predicting future research productivity. Notably, resumes prove to be the most powerful predictors of research productivity, while the job market paper contributes minimal predictive value once resume data is incorporated.
Speaker
Prof. Bin KE is a Professor of Accounting and Provost’s Chair at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School since 2015. He is a holder of the prestigious “Chang Jiang Scholar” title awarded by China’s Ministry of Education and the Li Ka Shing Foundation. His primary teaching interests include financial accounting principles, financial statement analysis, and doctoral seminars on empirical financial accounting research; whereas his primary research interests focus on the economic forces that determine the production and use of accounting information in business decisions. Examples of his research including earnings management, insider trading, institutional investors, and financial analysts. His recent research focuses on financial reporting, managerial incentives, and investor protection in emerging markets with a particular focus on China.
All are welcome!
