Jivas Chakravarthy

Dr. Jivas Chakravarthy is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Accounting at the College of Business, The University of Texas at Arlington, where he has been a faculty member since September 2019. He previously served as an Assistant Professor at Chapman University’s Argyros School of Business and Economics from 2014 to 2019. He holds a PhD in Business Accounting from Emory University (2014), an MBA in Accounting from DePaul University (2004), and a BA in Accounting from the University of Illinois Chicago (1998). He is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive) in Illinois.

His research applies the framework of Institutional Economics to financial accounting, with two primary streams: (1) the political economy of accounting standard-setting and regulatory use of accounting information, using archival methods; and (2) the institutional foundations of accounting principles such as conservatism, using experimental economics. His work has been published in top-tier journals including Management Science, Review of Accounting Studies, The Accounting Review, and Behavioral Research in Accounting.

The most recent articles reflect a strong trend in behavioral and institutional accounting research, exploring how social norms, cognitive biases (e.g., sinister attribution bias), and political dynamics shape accounting practices and disclosures. His work increasingly integrates experimental and archival methods to examine the emergence and evolution of accounting principles, particularly conservatism and transparency in bad news reporting. Keywords across publications include institutional economics, financial reporting, behavioral accounting, and regulatory oversight.

• Distinguished Research Publication Award, UTA College of Business (2022)
• Distinguished Research Publication Award, UTA College of Business (2020)
• Best Dissertation Award, Financial Accounting and Reporting Section, American Accounting Association (2015)

Dr. Chakravarthy advises PhD students, including Triza Nganga, and serves on the dissertation committee. He has been actively involved in academic service, including as a reviewer for leading journals such as The Accounting Review, Management Science, and Contemporary Accounting Research, and as a member of departmental and college committees at UTA. He regularly presents his research at major academic conferences, including the AAA Annual Meeting, Hawaii Accounting Research Conference, and Lone Star Conference. His teaching focuses on financial accounting, financial statement analysis, and managerial accounting.

He is affiliated with the American Accounting Association and has contributed to public discourse through media coverage in outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and USA Today. He leads and participates in research workshops and collaborates with colleagues on projects related to disclosure, conservatism, and institutional change in accounting.