Mendoza School of Business

John Donovan

Gerspach Family Associate Professor of Accountancy, PWC Faculty Fellow
Accountancy
 574-631-5057
  388 Mendoza College of Business
 Orcid
  • Biography
  • Background
  • Publications

John Donovan is the Gerspach Family Associate Professor of Accountancy and the PwC Faculty Fellow at the Mendoza College of Business. John researches financial accounting, focusing on the use of accounting and financial reporting in debt and equity markets. John's research has been published in several academic journals including The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Accounting Research, Management Science, and Review of Accounting Studies. In the Mendoza College of Business, John currently teaches Measurement & Disclosure I and has previously taught Data Analytics in Accounting. John also serves as the faculty advisor for the Master of Science in Accountancy program. Prior to joining the faculty, John worked as a certified public accountant at PwC and he received his Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis and his M.S.A. and B.B.A. from the University of Notre Dame.

Education
Ph D, Washington University in St. Louis, Olin Business School
MS, University of Notre Dame, Mendoza College of Business
BBA, University of Notre Dame, Mendoza College of Business

Areas of Expertise
Financial Accounting

"Pay for Prudence", (With Salman Arif, Yadav Gopalan, Arthur Morris), Journal of Accounting and Economics, 77

"Does Recognition versus Disclosure Influence Debt Contract Design? Evidence from SFAS 158", (With Andrew McMartin, Matthew Phillips, ), The Accounting Review, 99, 2024

"Contracting in the Dark: The Rise of Public-Side Lenders in the Syndicated Loan Market", (With Hami Amiraslani, Matthew Philliips, Regina Wittenberg-Moerman), Journal of Accounting and Economics, 76, 2023


"Private lenders' use of analyst earnings forecasts when establishing debt covenant thresholds", (With Andrew Call, Jared Jennings), The Accounting Review, 97

"Measuring credit risk using qualitative disclosure", (With Jared Jennings, Kevin Koharki, Joshua Lee), Review of Accounting Studies, 26, 2021

"Income Smoothing and the Usefulness of Earnings for Monitoring in Debt Contracting", (With Peter Demerjian, Melissa Lewis-Western), Contemporary Accounting Research, 37, 2020

"Assessing the Accuracy of Forward-Looking Information in Debt Contract Negotiations", (With Peter Demerjian, Jared Jennings), Journal of Management Accounting Research, 32, 2020

"Fair Value Accounting and Debt Contracting: Evidence from Adoption of SFAS 159", (With Peter Demerjian, Chad Larson), Journal of Accounting Research, 54, 2016

"Accounting Conservatism and Creditor Recovery Rate", (With Richard Frankel, Xiumin Martin), The Accounting Review, 90, 2015

"Issues raised by studying DeFond and Zhang: What should audit researchers do?", (With Richard Frankel, Joshua Lee, Xiumin Martin, Hojun Seo), Journal of Accounting and Economics, 58, 2014