Charles and Nancy Davidson created the position in July 2006 to support the research and scholarly activities of the holder in the Naveen Jindal School of Management. Ali assumed the position in September 2006.


“It has been wonderful to be a part of this institution during its amazing growth both in size and stature.”

As a scholar of financial accounting, Dr. Ashiq Ali says the subject plays an important role in the proper functioning of capital markets. Referring to the recent events in the financial world, he notes: “The importance of this role is underscored by many landmark events of the last two decades, including the accounting scandals at Enron and WorldCom, the U.S. stock market’s dot-com bubble, and the subprime mortgage crisis,” he said. “These events led to important regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Dodd-Frank Act.”

His research examines the causes and consequences of these events and regulations. Specifically, he has studied the effect of corporate governance and other firm characteristics on corporate disclosure policies and financial transparency, as well as whether recent financial regulations have been beneficial to shareholders. His research has also dealt with the capital market’s efficiency in the valuation of securities.

His work has been published in The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies.

He is an editorial board member of The Accounting Review and the Journal of Accounting, Auditing, and Finance. He has served as an editorial board member of The Journal of International Accounting Researchand The International Journal of Accounting.

He said his career highlight has been joining the faculty of the Naveen Jindal School of Management at UT Dallas in 2004.

Of his endowed position, he said, “The generous support provided by the Charles and Nancy Davidson Chair has facilitated my research.”

Before working at UT Dallas, he taught at the University of Arizona from 1995 to 2004. He also previously taught in the MBA programs at New York University and Columbia University.

He earned his bachelor of engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, master of business administration from the Indian Institute of Management, and PhD in financial accounting from Columbia University.