Faculty and Research

Paul Healy joined Harvard Business School as a Professor of Business Administration in 1997. His primary teaching interests include corporate financial reporting and analysis, corporate governance and accountability, and equity research in capital markets. Professor Healy teaches in several executive education programs, and is faculty cochair of Strategic Financial Analysis for Business Evaluation. Professor Healy received his B.C.A. Honors (1st Class) in Accounting and Finance from Victoria University, New Zealand in 1977, his M.S. in Economics from the University of Rochester in 1981, his Ph.D. in Business from the University of Rochester in 1983, and is a New Zealand CPA. In New Zealand, Professor Healy worked for Arthur Young and ICI. Prior to joining Harvard, Professor Healy spent fourteen years on the faculty at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management, where he received awards for teaching excellence in 1991, 1992, and 1997. He is the coauthor (with Professors Krishna G. Palepu) of one of the leading financial analysis textbooks, Business Analysis and Valuation. In 1993-94 he served as Deputy Dean at the Sloan School, and in 1994-95 he visited London Business School and Harvard Business School.

Professor Healy's research includes studies of the role and performance of financial analysts, how firms' disclosure strategies affect their cost of capital, the performance of merging firms after mergers, and managers' financial reporting decisions. His work has been published in The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Accounting Research, and Journal of Financial Economics. In 1990, his article 'The Effect of Bonus Schemes on Accounting Decisions,' published in Journal of Accounting and Economics, was awarded the AICPA/AAA Notable Contribution Award. His text Business Analysis and Valuation was awarded the AICPA/AAA's Wildman Medal for contributions to the practice in 1997, and the AICPA/AAA Notable Contribution Award in 1998.