Rate My Professor Brian Bratten

Brian Bratten is the Carol Martin Gatton Endowed Chaired Professor of Accountancy and Director of the Graduate Certificate in Taxation at the University of Kentucky's Gatton College of Business and Economics. He joined the faculty in 2009 as an Assistant Professor following his PhD in Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin. Bratten also holds a Master of Science in Finance and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from Texas A&M University, both earned in 2001, and is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in Texas. Prior to pursuing his doctorate, he worked at KPMG LLP in Houston as a Senior Associate in audit from 2002 to 2004 and as an Associate from 2001 to 2002, primarily auditing companies in the financial services industry. At the University of Kentucky, he advanced to Associate Professor in 2016 and Professor in 2019. His administrative roles include Director of the Von Allmen School of Accountancy from 2021 to 2025, Director of Graduate Studies for the PhD program in Accounting from 2018 to 2021, Acting Director of Graduate Studies in Spring 2024, and Visiting Scholar at Indiana University Kelley School of Business in Spring 2018.

Bratten's research focuses on financial accounting and auditing topics, including analysts' forecasts, earnings management, executive compensation, fair value accounting, fundamental analysis, and the information content of GAAP and non-GAAP disclosures. He has published in top-tier journals such as the Journal of Accounting and Economics ("Mandatory Disclosures and Opportunism: Evidence from Repurchases," 2025, with M. Huang, N. T. Jenkins, and H. Xie), Management Science ("Filling in the GAAPs in Individual Analysts' Street Earnings Forecasts," 2023, with S. Larocque and T. L. Yohn), Contemporary Accounting Research ("On the Informativeness of Unexpected Exclusions from Street Earnings," 2024, with S. Larocque and T. Yohn; "Audit Firm Tenure, Bank Complexity, and Financial Reporting Quality," 2019, with M. Causholli and T. C. Omer), The Accounting Review ("Forecasting Taxes: New Evidence from Analysts," 2017, with C. A. Gleason, S. A. Larocque, and L. F. Mills), Accounting, Organizations and Society ("The Accuracy of Disclosures for Complex Estimates: Evidence from Reported Stock Option Fair Values," 2016, with R. Jennings and C. M. Schwab), and Review of Accounting Studies ("Usefulness of Fair Values for Predicting Banks' Future Earnings: Evidence from Other Comprehensive Income and Its Components," 2016, with M. Causholli and U. Khan). Bratten has received the inaugural Gatton College Research Excellence Award for Productivity (2017), Journal of the American Taxation Association Outstanding Paper Award (2017), Auditing Section Best Conference Paper Award (2019), and Financial Accounting and Reporting Section Excellence in Reviewing Award (2018). He serves on the editorial board of Accounting Horizons and other journals.