Professor Arya's research has developed insights about accounting practices and highlighted the unique role played by accounting numbers in decentralized organizations where information is critical. His articles have studied issues such as earnings management, real options and control problems, information system design, team effectiveness, and historical cost reporting. His work has appeared in many academic journals, including Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, Review of Accounting Studies, Journal of Economic Theory, The Rand Journal of Economics, Management Science,and Issues in Accounting Education.

Professor Arya teaches in the MBA, MAcc, undergraduate Honors, and the Ph.D. Accounting programs. In the classroom, Arya attempts to develop an understanding of accounting as more than a collection of rules by highlighting economic forces that might give rise to accounting as we know it. This leads to an interdisciplinary approach, and one that capitalizes on synergies between research and teaching activities.