The rewards for publishing in accounting in the USA

Accounting faculty in the USA are rewarded for publishing, with the reward increasing with journal quality. We estimate the increase in annual salary for a top tier publication to be $5,609, with the increase varying across ranks - from $2,008 for an endowed professor to $9,452 for an assistant professor. As these are increases in base salary, under reasonable assumptions for longevity and discount rate, the present value of a top tier publication exceeds $145,000 for an assistant professor. We also document that the reward varies systematically across schools and over time. While we find significantly greater average salaries at doctoral granting institutions, we find the reward per publication is greater at non-doctoral granting institutions. We also find that more recent publications are valued more highly, and that the payoff for a top tier publication has increased over time, while that for lower tier publications has decreased.