Mihir Mehta

I received my doctorate from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelors in Business (with First Class Honors) from the University of Technology, Sydney.

My research spans two broad areas. The first is at the intersection of accounting and political economics. I investigate how organizations are affected by, and respond to, frictions in the U.S. political system that arise because of limitations in political governance and monitoring systems.

I focus on the idea that the governance and monitoring systems that politicians use to oversee and discipline regulators are a double-edged sword. In particular, the systems also allow politicians to opportunistically influence regulator actions for self-serving reasons. In a series of papers, I provide evidence to this effect. In a follow-up study, I investigate regulator design characteristics that can limit opportunistic political influence. In another study, I consider governance and monitoring systems in government more broadly by examining whether these systems prevent the misuse of government funds. My recently, my research focuses on the breadth of ways in which firms attempt to influence the political process.

The second stream of my research examines the usefulness and consequences of information spillovers. My research considers a diverse range of contexts, including: (1) the completeness of regulations against insider trading; (2) the role of humans in lending decisions, given the extensive use of artificial intelligence in lending markets; and (3) the benefits of different specialization structures in organizations.

My research has been presented at leading universities and academic conferences across accounting, finance, and political economics and has been nominated for and won multiple competitive awards. My papers have been published in Journal of Accounting and Economics, the Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, and Contemporary Accounting Research, and my research has been cited by the WSJ, NYTimes, SF Gate, ThompsonReuters, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Dow Jones Market Watch, Congressional Research Service, Law360, Yahoo! Finance, and L’Echo. I am also a business news contributor on WILS 1320 News Radio.

I have won awards for both my undergraduate and graduate teaching. I currently teach Financial Accounting (ACC 300), a core class for Michigan Ross undergraduate students. Before my doctoral studies, I worked at Ernst & Young LLP in Sydney, Australia. In my spare time, I enjoy spending time with my wife and daughter, drinking coffee, and playing golf (poorly).