Re: Which class for acct PhD?
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25 Jan 2010, 08:47
Calculus (and linear algebra, including econometrics, for empirical research) is the cornerstone of whatever work you'd do in an Accounting PhD program, and stuff like microeconomics and game theory is essential for analytical research (many people call that "theory stuff"). Of course an accounting research course can be great but you won't get as much from it if you lack some of the econ foundations behind the papers, whatever the subfield is.
As for a BA in Math -- my guess is the actual courses taken may be more important than the degree, but I don't know.
So basically, in that order: (1) you need a strong foundation in calculus and optimization (Lagrange and so on), (2) you want good prior exposure to microeconomics, econometrics and maybe game theory, preferably at the graduate level (or advanced undergrad courses), and (3) some prior exposure to accounting research is a plus. You may have (1) from your math courses so far, you basically said you don't have (2), so (3) can wait a bit.