The Elephant in the Room: p-hacking and Accounting Research

Abstract Ohlson (2023. Empirical accounting seminars: Elephants in the room. Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium ) draws on his experience in empirical accounting seminars to identify five “elephants in the room”. I interpret each of these elephants as either a variant or a symptom of p-hacking. I provide evidence of the prevalence of p-hacking in accounting research that complements the observations made by Ohlson (2023. Empirical accounting seminars: Elephants in the room. Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium ). In this paper, I identify a number of steps that could be taken to reduce p-hacking in accounting research. I conjecture that facilitating and encouraging replication alone could have profound effects on the quality and quantity of empirical accounting research.