Dr. Chris Hodgdon, Assistant Professor of Business Administration, received the

Outstanding International Accounting Dissertation Award, International

Accounting Section, at the American Accounting Association 2005 Annual

Meeting on Aug. 8 in San Francisco. In his dissertation, Hodgdon investigates

the relationship between the accuracy and dispersion of analysts’ earnings

forecasts and firm compliance with the disclosure requirements of

International Accounting Standards. His findings suggest that compliance with

the disclosure requirements of IAS reduces information asymmetry and

enhances the ability of financial analysts to provide more accurate forecasts.

Hodgson also presented the first paper from his dissertation at the meeting.

The title of his paper is “Compliance with IAS Disclosure Requirements and

Individual Analysts' Forecast Accuracy”. Hodgdon and his co-authors’ findings

support the hypothesis that compliance with IAS improves the information

environment for complying firms which is associated with a reduction in

analyst forecast errors.