About

Alex K. Dontoh is a Professor of Accounting at the Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University, where he has been a faculty member since 1988. He holds a Ph.D. in Accounting from New York University, an M.B.A. in Accounting/Finance from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.Sc. in Business Administration from the University of Ghana. Professor Dontoh is the Director of the Master of Science in Accounting program and oversees the development of the undergraduate curriculum in accounting, which has been consistently rated in the top 10 accounting programs in the country. His research focuses on the analytical aspects of the economics of information, investigating both analytical and empirical issues in accounting related to the effects of mandated and discretionary accounting disclosures, their impact on managerial decision-making, and firm market value. Professor Dontoh has published numerous articles in leading journals such as The Accounting Review, Contemporary Accounting Research, and Review of Accounting Studies. He teaches Managerial and Financial Accounting primarily in the undergraduate program at Stern.

Research topics

• Finance
• Business
• Economics
• Financial system
• Monetary economics
• Physics
• Art
• Economic growth
• Market economy
• Actuarial science
• Financial economics
• Accounting

Selected publications

• Should Africa Innovate, Tax, or Both to Address Climate Change-Induced Vulnerability? Empirical Evidence

  Advances in African economic, social and political development · 2026-01-01

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• Climate Change Adaptation Strategy and Inclusive Development in Africa: Analyzing the Threshold Effect of Banking Services and Environmental Taxes

  Advances in African economic, social and political development · 2026-01-01

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Speculative Trading and Price Momentum

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Speculative Trading and Price Momentum

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• The effects of intellectual capital on risk and return of banks: nonlinear modelling approach

  International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital · 2022

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Economics
  • Business
  • Finance
  PublisherDOI

• The effects of intellectual capital on risk and return of banks: nonlinear modelling approach

  International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital · 2022 · 4 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Economics
  • Business
  • Actuarial science

  This study examines the nonlinear effects of intellectual capital (IC) on the risks and returns of banks. Using the annual data of 366 banks from 26 African countries during 2007 to 2015, the study estimates the following: IC using the value-added intellectual coefficient (VAIC); risks and returns of banks using net interest margin; risk-adjusted return on assets; and insolvency risk. The results indicate that the relationship between net interest margin/insolvency risk and IC is nonlinear, U-shaped/ inverted U-shaped. The study's findings provide evidence for the extent of IC's contribution to the performance and stability of banks in Africa. This study's multidimensional conceptualisation of IC, risks and returns provides a robust systematic approach to a comprehensive understanding of aspects of the banking sector in emerging economies in Africa.

  PublisherDOI

• Unfair “Fair Value” in Illiquid Markets: Information Spillover Effects in Times of Crisis

  Management Science · 2020 · 13 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Monetary economics
  • Economics
  • Business

  We investigate the effects of write-downs on market prices and volumes under fair value accounting. We also examine the prominent role that illiquidity plays in exacerbating the direct and spillover effects of exit valuation on equity and credit default swap (CDS) markets. Using hand-collected data on write-down announcements made during and after the 2007–2009 financial crisis, we find that firms that wrote down assets in accordance with fair value rules experience significant abnormal negative stock returns and spikes in the CDS premiums written on their obligations; similar firms without write-downs exhibit sympathetic and significant negative abnormal returns and positive premiums. We find that both the direct effect of the write-downs and the indirect spillover effects resulting from crisis-related illiquidity in the markets for financial assets (affecting the magnitude of write-downs) and in the securities markets (affecting the reaction to the write-downs) during the financial crisis go beyond normal direct and information transfer effects and may have contributed to the adverse consequences of the crisis. This paper was accepted by Shiva Rajgopal, accounting.

  PublisherDOI

• Unfair 'Fair Value' in Illiquid Markets: Excessive Spillover Effects in Times of Crisis

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2018-01-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Dynamics of Belief Formation and Price Momentum

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2017-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Differences in Prior Beliefs, Differential Interpretation, and the Consensus Effect of Quarterly Earnings Signals and Trading Volume

  Journal of Accounting Auditing & Finance · 2016-02-05

  articleOpen access

  Models of financial economists including Karpoff, Varian, Holthausen and Verrecchia, and Dontoh and Ronen have demonstrated that there are three distinct fundamental determinants of trading volume reaction to new information releases: first, the extent of differences in investors’ prior beliefs; second, differences in their interpretations of the information; and third, the level of consensus that the information release induces among them. Although these effects are well understood theoretically, empirical studies that investigate trading volume reaction to the arrival of new information have tended to combine these three fundamental determinants, thereby masking their distinct incremental effects on trade. In this article, we examine all three potential sources of trade in response to information: heterogeneous prior beliefs, differential interpretation, and the consensus effect of the news. We find that all three of these effects have a distinct incremental impact on trading volume, thereby corroborating the theoretical models of financial economists.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Joshua Ronen

  New York University

  13 shared

• Bharat Sarath

  7 shared

• Tavy Ronen

  Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

  7 shared

• Fayez A. Elayan

  Brock University

  5 shared

• Michael J. Gift

  City University of Macau

  4 shared

• Gordon D. Richardson

  3 shared

• Suresh Radhakrishnan

  3 shared

• Rowland K. Atiase

  The University of Texas at Austin

  3 shared