©Outslay2015Ph.D. Productivity1 Ph.D. Productivity: The Search for More Wax 2015 KPMG/ATA Tax Doctoral Consortium Washington, DC February 26, 2015 Ed Outslay Deloitte/Michael Licata Endowed Professor of Taxation Michigan State University

©Outslay2015Ph.D. Productivity2 The Conundrum

©Outslay2015Ph.D. Productivity3 Goals in the Ph.D. program - obvious  Take coursework that will enable you to do rigorous empirical, behavioral, and/or analytical research with a high gpa  Develop a knowledge of the literature in your area  Pass the comprehensive exams  Successfully write and defend a dissertation  Find a way to integrate work with your so-called life  Graduate before you have grandchildren  Be a hot commodity on the job market Goals of a Ph.D. Program

©Outslay2015Ph.D. Productivity4 Goals in the Ph.D. program – not so obvious  Learn coping skills that will enable you to juggle many activities – family, research, teaching, baseball coaching – efficiently!  Have a set of accepted / working papers in submission form that will increase the likelihood of renewal of your initial contract (2-3 years)  Develop one to three deep research streams that will provide a platform for the first 6-8 years of your career (through tenure)  Acquire or enhance a deep tax technical background that will give your research CONTEXT and allow you to teach tax courses  Cultivate a network of like-minded tax research colleagues around the country – many computers make light work Goals of a Ph.D. Program

©Outslay2015Ph.D. Productivity5 Profiles of Recent Tax Candidates,

©Outslay2015Ph.D. Productivity6 Publications  2: 1  1: 5  0: 14 Papers under review  3: 1  2: 5  1: 7  0: 7 Profiles of Recent Tax Candidates,

©Outslay2015Ph.D. Productivity7 Working papers  6: 1  5: 3  4: 5  3: 6  2: 4  1: 1 Presentations made  Range: 0-15  Mean: 4  0: 9 Profiles of Recent Tax Candidates,

©Outslay2015Ph.D. Productivity8 Conferences attended  >20: 3  10-20: 8  1-9: 6  0: 3 Teaching: 10  Taught tax: 8  TA for tax: 2  No tax teaching: 10 Profiles of Recent Tax Candidates,

©Outslay2015Ph.D. Productivity9 Accounting Review (71 papers)  Mean: 23 months  Range: 14 – 37 months  Tax-related papers: 5 (7%) JAR (29 papers)  Mean: 21 months  Range: 7 – 36 months  Tax-related papers: 1 (3.5%) Submission to Acceptance, 2014

©Outslay2015Ph.D. Productivity10 JAE (18 papers)  Mean: 25 months  Range: 11 – 48 months (two outliers due to author delay)  Tax-related papers: 3 (16.67%) Submission to Acceptance, 2014

©Outslay2015Ph.D. Productivity11 ASPIRE  Have a passion for what you do – this is a profession, not a job  Desire to make a difference in the tax world  How taxes matter  Contribute to the public policy debate  Leave a legacy Keys to Being a Productive Ph.D. Student

©Outslay2015Ph.D. Productivity12 Keys to Being a Productive Ph.D. Student

©Outslay2015Ph.D. Productivity13 PERSPIRE  Work hard (this is not a 9 – 3 job)  Have a sense of urgency Keys to Being a Productive Ph.D. Student Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well. Ecclesiastes 11:6

©Outslay2015Ph.D. Productivity14 INSPIRE  Share your knowledge / passion with new Ph.D. students  Share your enthusiasm in the classroom Keys to Being a Productive Ph.D. Student

©Outslay2015Ph.D. Productivity15 Develop an intellectual curiosity for tax - read every day!  Daily Tax Report  Tax Notes  Newspapers – WSJ, NYT, Financial Times, local papers (tax comics)  Business periodicals – Business Week, Fortune, Forbes  SEC comment letters  Earnings announcements, M&A announcements  Twitter: Jesse Drucker Achieving Productivity

©Outslay2015Ph.D. Productivity16 Achieving Productivity

©Outslay2015Ph.D. Productivity17 Attend conferences / watch webcasts  KPMG portal  E&Y / Deloitte / PwC tax professors symposiums  NTA conferences  TCPI conference in February  UNC tax conference (become a FOD or FOE or FOJ)  Deloitte / University of Illinois research symposium (biennial)  Webcasts! Achieving Productivity

©Outslay2015Ph.D. Productivity18 Volunteer to be a discussant at the mid-year ATA meeting and the annual AAA meeting Participate in / start a tax reading group Be proactive with productive faculty  Motivated untenured faculty with time  Senior faculty with ideas but limited time and who understand “the system”  From “acknowledgement” to co-author Achieving Productivity

©Outslay2015Ph.D. Productivity19 Develop / refresh your technical tax toolbox  Take / sit-in on graduate tax classes  Teach a stand-alone tax class while you are in the doctoral program Develop a tax research network!!!!!!!  Within your department  Outside your department  They all count 1! Achieving Productivity

©Outslay2015Ph.D. Productivity20 Achieving Productivity