Accounting professor in GSB receives Wish award

The award will be given annually for the best paper written by a junior member of the GSB accounting faculty. Ernest Wish, chairman of WRM Inc., and former managing partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers, established the award through a gift from himself and his former firm. Wish received his M.B.A. from the GSB in 1971.

Piotroski won the award for his research paper titled “Value Investing: The Use of Historical Financial Statement Information to Separate Winners from Losers.” In his paper, Piotroski applies basic financial statement analysis to portfolios with book values that are higher than their market values. Analysts often consider such portfolios bad investments, yet some firms with these portfolios are strong, and as Piotroski’s research shows, can outperform the overall market.