On May 19, 2026 Prof. Hans B. Christensen from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business was a guest at our TRR 266/TAF Research Seminar at the TAF Department of Paderborn University. He presented the paper “Beyond Greenwashing: Environmental Commitments and Gas Flaring in the African Oil Sector”.
Hans Christensen's current research primarily focuses on the effect on society of regulation aimed at incentivizing firms to act socially responsible. This includes the effect of transparency regulation on healthcare prices and labor safety, as well as, foreign corruption regulation on economic development. His papers have been published in the Journal of Accounting Economics, the Journal of Accounting Research, Review of Accounting Studies, and Review of Financial Studies.
Within the corporate world, Christensen previously worked with the firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). At PwC, he audited financial statements which were prepared according to US-GAAP, IFRS, and various national European accounting standards, as well as worked on complex deals such as MA transactions.
Christensen earned a PhD in accounting from Manchester Business School in the United Kingdom and joined the Chicago Booth faculty in 2008. He hopes that his students take away an understanding of accounting that allows them to read and understand financial reports and make better decisions based on the information in them.
Outside of academia, Christensen has been preparing for the Chicago Marathon for the past ten years and he hopes he will be able to run it soon. He also enjoys traveling.
