Accounting professor and UConn alumnus Frank Murphy ‘07 has won the American Taxation Association’s Outstanding Tax Manuscript Award for his significant contribution to the tax literature.

His research, titled “Foreign Employment, Income Shifting, and Tax Uncertainty,’’ was published in The Accounting Review in March 2022. He co-authored the piece with Katharine D. Drake of the University of Arizona and Nathan C. Goldman of North Carolina State University. Their work examined the effect of foreign employment on both income shifting and the tax uncertainty of foreign transactions. The article is one of several that Murphy has published in the area of international taxation.

In line with the award going to research with real-world implications, there have been several media pieces discussing these findings from their study, including an article in Forbes.

“This is a great accomplishment for Frank, and additional national recognition for our department and the outstanding work our faculty are doing,” said professor George Plesko, accounting department head.

After earning his UConn bachelor’s degree in business, with a major in accounting, Murphy worked at Deloitte Tax in Hartford for six years. During that time, he performed international tax consulting for Fortune 100 clients. He also completed a master’s degree in taxation from Bentley University and became a licensed CPA in Connecticut. After earning his Ph.D. in accounting at the University of Arizona, he joined the UConn faculty in 2017.

“It is truly an honor to even be considered for an award like this, but to actually win is humbling,” Murphy said. “This was an article that Nathan and I started as Ph.D. students at the University of Arizona. Then, with the help of Katharine Drake, it morphed into research that people found rather interesting. Hopefully, I can pay forward what Katharine did for us and help our UConn doctoral students develop impactful research.”