John Barrios, associate professor of accounting, has won the Award for Research Impacting Societal Challenges, a prize jointly administered by the American Accounting Association, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, and Responsible Research for Business and Management. The award recognizes his paper “Occupational Licensing and Accountant Quality: Evidence from the 150‐Hour Rule,” which was published in the March 2022 issue of Journal of Accounting Research.
The award is conferred each year at the American Accounting Association’s Annual Meeting.
In the paper, Barrios examines the impact of the 150-hour education requirement for Certified Public Accountant (CPA) licensure on both the supply and quality of new entrants to the profession. Analyzing data from states that imposed the requirement at different times, Barrios finds that the policy reduces the number of candidates taking the CPA exam, including both low- and high-ability entrants. Moreover, analysis of individual career data shows that this reduction did not produce measurable improvements in long-run career outcomes, retention, or communication skills. The paper concludes that accountants who qualify under the 150-hour rule perform at similar levels to those who entered under the previous 120-hour standard.
“The 150-hour rule raises the cost of entry without clear evidence that it improved preparation or performance,” Barrios noted. “Instead, it changed who becomes an accountant, with real implications for diversity, access, and the quality of the work accountants do.”
Barrios joined the Yale SOM faculty earlier this year after previously serving as a visiting assistant professor. He is also a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He earned his PhD in business administration and MPA in accounting at the University of Miami. His research explores questions at the intersection of labor economics, entrepreneurship, and accounting, with a focus on how regulation and market dynamics shape professional and firm behavior.