Ryan Ball

Ryan Ball is the Coopers and Lybrand, Norman E. Auerbach Assistant Professor of Accounting at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. He conducts research in two areas. The first area focuses on understanding how high-frequency economic activities differentially affect and are affected by low-frequency accounting information using a mixed data sampling approach. He has applied this approach across a number of research topics including the role of aggregate earnings as a macroeconomic leading indicator, seemingly inefficient tax choices by shareholders, performance evaluation relative to aspirational peers, and real-time forecasts of firm-level accounting earnings. The second area examines the contracting and valuation roles of accounting information in debt markets. He has published his research in Management Science, Review of Accounting Studies and Journal of Accounting Research. In addition to his research, Ryan has been recognized for his teaching at Michigan as a three-time recipient of the Ross Business School’s Neary Teaching Excellence Award as well as the first Ross faculty to receive the University of Michigan’s Golden Apple Teaching Award in 2016.

Previously, Ryan worked at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business as an Assistant Professor of Accounting where he taught an MBA elective course on accounting for mergers and acquisitions. In addition, he worked as a structural engineer for Burgess and Niple, LTD in Cleveland, Ohio prior to earning his graduate degrees in business. Ryan holds a Ph.D. (2008) and an MBA (2003) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as well as an MS in Structural Engineering (1998) and a BS in Civil Engineering (1996) from Ohio University.

EDUCATION

• PhD University of North Carolina 2008
• MBA University of North Carolina 2003
• MS Ohio University 1998
• BS Ohio University 1996