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
©Outslay2015
Ph.D. Productivity
1
The Conundrum
©Outslay2015
Ph.D. Productivity
2
Goals of a Ph.D. Program
• 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
©Outslay2015
Ph.D. Productivity
3
Goals of a Ph.D. Program
• 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
©Outslay2015
Ph.D. Productivity
4
Profiles of Recent Tax Candidates, 2013-2015
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
1
2
3
Publications
©Outslay2015
4
5
Under Review
6
7
8
9
Working Papers
10
11
12
Presentations Made
Ph.D. Productivity
13
14
15
16
Conferences Attended
17
18
Taught Tax
19
20
TA Tax
5
Profiles of Recent Tax Candidates, 2013-2015
• Publications
 2: 1
 1: 5
 0: 14
• Papers under review




3:
2:
1:
0:
1
5
7
7
©Outslay2015
Ph.D. Productivity
6
Profiles of Recent Tax Candidates, 2013-2015
• Working papers






6:
5:
4:
3:
2:
1:
1
3
5
6
4
1
• Presentations made
 Range: 0-15
 Mean: 4
 0: 9
©Outslay2015
Ph.D. Productivity
7
Profiles of Recent Tax Candidates, 2013-2015
• 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
©Outslay2015
Ph.D. Productivity
8
Submission to Acceptance, 2014
• 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%)
©Outslay2015
Ph.D. Productivity
9
Submission to Acceptance, 2014
• JAE (18 papers)
 Mean: 25 months
 Range: 11 – 48 months (two outliers due to author delay)
 Tax-related papers: 3 (16.67%)
©Outslay2015
Ph.D. Productivity
10
Keys to Being a Productive Ph.D. Student
• 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
©Outslay2015
Ph.D. Productivity
11
Keys to Being a Productive Ph.D. Student
©Outslay2015
Ph.D. Productivity
12
Keys to Being a Productive Ph.D. Student
• PERSPIRE
 Work hard (this is not a 9 – 3 job)
 Have a sense of urgency
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
©Outslay2015
Ph.D. Productivity
13
Keys to Being a Productive Ph.D. Student
• INSPIRE
 Share your knowledge / passion with new Ph.D. students
 Share your enthusiasm in the classroom
©Outslay2015
Ph.D. Productivity
14
Achieving Productivity
• 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
©Outslay2015
Ph.D. Productivity
15
Achieving Productivity
©Outslay2015
Ph.D. Productivity
16
Achieving Productivity
• 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!
©Outslay2015
Ph.D. Productivity
17
Achieving Productivity
• 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
©Outslay2015
Ph.D. Productivity
18
Achieving Productivity
• 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!
©Outslay2015
Ph.D. Productivity
19
Achieving Productivity
©Outslay2015
Ph.D. Productivity
20