People

“But my work experience in economics helped to frame my interest in accounting, and the faculty have been very supportive of my work.”

Accountants aren’t typically distinguished by their athletic prowess—unless that accountant is Elliot Tobin, HBS doctoral student and former captain of MIT’s football team, where he was named an all-conference offensive lineman. “I played lots of sports in my youth,” he says, “but I was best at football.”

After earning his bachelor’s degree in economics, management from MIT and a master’s in applied economics and data science from Boston College, the Minnesota transplant is currently balancing his HBS research in accounting and management with that ubiquitous high-contact sport known as pickleball. “I play an hour or two with my girlfriend every day,” says Elliot. “It’s a small court so you have to find just the right touch.”

Finding just the right touch was key when it came to finding direction in his academic career. At MIT, he hadn’t considered going into economics or business until he took an entry-level econ course and discovered he was a natural at it. Hoping to build on his theoretical basis through practical efforts, Elliot worked as a product manager at Staples and then as a research assistant at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, VA. It was there that he discovered accounting—“something more real-world oriented,” he says.

Research

Elliot’s research focuses on ESG (environmental, social, governance) initiatives and how corporations can do good in the world even when doing so causes a decrease in the company’s financial value. He finds that shareholders often want companies to invest in charities, work to curb emissions, and act as good stewards to society, because a corporation can achieve these goals more efficiently than shareholders could on their own. This puts the onus on executives to select the right causes and charities, the right amount of money to allocate to ESG, and the right time to do so.