Changling Chen

Associate Professor, Financial Reporting
Chanling Chen

Office: Hagey Hall 174B

Phone: 519-888-4567 x45731

Email: clchen@uwaterloo.ca

Education and certifications

  • Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison
  • M.A., Beijing University
  • B.A., Central University of Finance and Economics
  • Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants (CICPA)

Brief biography

I am primarily interested in capital markets research on financial accounting issues such as the time-series attributes of financial reporting and their implications for stock pricing, the consequences of new accounting rules, and market inefficiencies in recognition of accounting information. My research also extends financial accounting perspectives to research issues in other disciplines such as finance, information systems, and auditing. In particular, my research topics include accounting conservatism, managerial discretion in financial reporting, goodwill impairment, post-earnings-announcement drift, accounting for executive stock options, and the role of fair value accounting in the recent financial crisis among others.

Selected publications

  • “The Implication of Unrecognized Intangible Assets on the Relation between Market Valuation and Debt Valuation Adjustment”, (co-authored with Matthew C. Cedergren at University of Pennsylvania, and Kai Chen at Wilfrid Laurier University), Review of Accounting Studies, Volume 24, June 2019, Pages 426-455.
  • “Earnings Smoothing: Does It Exacerbate or Constrain Stock Price Crash Risk? (co-authored with Jeong-bon Kim at SAF, and Li Yao at Concordia University), Journal of Corporate Finance, Volume 42, February 2017, Pages 36-54. Included in the CFA Institute's Selections issue-CFA Digest Volume 47, No. 12 December 2017.
  • “The Predictive Ability of Investment Property Fair Value Adjustments under IFRS and the Role of Accounting Conservatism” (co-authored with Sati Bandyopadhyay and Mindy Wolfe at Arizona State University), Advances in Accounting, Volume 38, September 2017, Pages 1-14.
  • “Target Ownership Plans and Earnings Management” (co-authored with Duane Kennedy at SAF, and Kareen Brown at Brock University), Advances in Accounting, Volume 36, March 2017, Pages 87-101.
  • "Mandatory Audit Partner Rotation, Audit Market Concentration, and Audit Quality: Evidence from China" (with Sati P. Bandyopadhyay and Yingmin Yu), Advances in Accounting, incorporating Advances in International Accounting, Volume 30, Issue 1, June 2014, pp. 18-31
  • "Time-Varying Earnings Persistence and the Delayed Stock Return Reaction to Earnings Announcements" Contemporary Accounting Research, Volume 30, Issue 2, Summer 2013, pp. 549-578.
  • "Idiosyncratic Return Volatility and the Information Quality Underlying Managerial Discretion", (with Alan Guoming Huang, and Ranjini Jha), Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Volume 47, Issue 4, Aug. 2012, pp. 873-899.
  • "The Role of IT Capability on a Firm's Ability to Recover from Losses: Evidence from the Recession of the Early 2000s", (with Jee-Hae Lim and Theophanis C. Stratopoulos), Journal of Information System, Volume 25, Issue 2, Fall 2011, pp. 117-144.
  • "Accounting Conservatism and the Temporal Trends in Current Earnings' Ability to Predict Future Cash Flows versus Future Earnings: Evidence on the Trade-off between Relevance and Reliability", (with Sati P. Bandyopadhyay, Alan G. Huang, and Ranjini Jha), Contemporary Accounting Research, Volume 27, Issue 2, Summer 2010, pp. 413-460.
  • "Goodwill Valuation Effects of the Initial Adoption of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) 142" (with Mark Kohlbeck and Terry Warfield), Advances in Accounting, Volume 24, Issue 1, June 2008, pp. 72-81.

Working papers

  • "Political Leanings and COVID-19 Disclosures", (with Ivee Che, and Victor Wang), accepted by 2022 CAAA annual conference
  • "Do firms provide informative disclosures in an environment of extreme uncertainty? Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic", (with Theo Stratopoulos, Victor Wang, and Betty Xing)                       
  • "Real earnings smoothing and managerial compensation incentives", (with Rachel Q. Tang, and Li Yao), accepted by 2019 CAAA and 2019 AAA annual conferences.
  • "Debt Covenant Violations, Credit Default Swap Pricing, and Borrowing Firms’ Accounting Conservatism", (with Jeong-bon Kim and Chunmei Zhu), accepted by 2019 CAAA annual conference.
  • "The Impact of Debt Covenant Violation on Credit Default Swap Spreads", (with Jeong-bon Kim and Chunmei Zhu), accepted by 2017 EAA annual conference.
  • "Fair-Value Accounting, loan loss-provisions, and the development of the recent financial crisis", (with Sati P. Bandyopadhyay and Alan. G. Huang), awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grant of $82,760 (the primary investigator).
  • "Accounting for employee stock option expense and earnings management" (with Sati P. Bandyopadhyay), awarded a SSHRC Standard grant of $69,000 (co-investigator), finished the data collection and preliminary of analysis.
  • "Debt valuation adjustment and executive compensation?" (with Matthew Cedergren and Kai Chen), under revision.
  • "Earnings management in the context of fair value accounting: Adjusting the Modified Jones Model to fair value accounting" (with Corinna Ewelt-Knauer, University of Muenster, Germany)
  • Copies of working papers can be obtained from SSRN.

Courses taught

  • AFM 391 - Intermediate Accounting II
  • AFM401 - Accounting Theory
  • AFM 492 /AFM 609 - Financial Statement Analysis
  • ACC 701 - Financial Accounting Research Seminar

Awards

  • Outstanding Research Fellowship, School of Accounting and Finance, University of Waterloo, 2012, 2013-2017, 2019-2022
  • Outstanding Leadership Fellowship, School of Accounting and Finance, University of Waterloo, 2017, 2018-2021, 2022-2024

Editorial Board

  • Contemporary Accounting Research, Editorial Board Member (2014-2022)
  • Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting & Economics, Associate Editor (2016-present)

Funding

  • SSHRC Insight Research Grant $97,000 2021-2024 (Primary Investigator)
  • CPA Canada—CAAA Research Program $6,000, co-investigator
  • SSHRC Insight Research Grant $83,000 (Primary Investigator)
  • SSHRC Standard Resarch Grant $69,000 (Co-investigator)
  • University of Waterloo SSHRC seed grant $5,500 (Primary Investigator)