Author Description

About the Author James M. Wahlen is the James R. Hodge Chair of Excellence, professor of accounting, former chair of the accounting department, and the former chair of the MBA program at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. Dr. Wahlen received his PhD from the University of Michigan and has served on the faculties of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Washington and Pacific Lutheran University. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Chicago, INSEAD and Sungkyunkwan University. Dr. Wahlen's teaching and research interests focus on financial accounting, financial statement analysis and the capital markets. He investigates financial statements analysis, testing the extent to which earnings and other financial statement information can predict future stock returns, earnings quality and management, earnings volatility as an indicator of risk, fair value accounting for financial instruments and accounting for loss reserve estimates by banks and insurers. His research has been published in a wide array of academic and practitioner journals in accounting and finance. He has public accounting experience in both Milwaukee and Seattle and is a member of the American Accounting Association. Dr. Wahlen has received numerous teaching awards during his career. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his wife and daughters, spoiling his adorable granddaughters, playing outdoor sports (biking, hiking, skiing, golf), cooking (and, of course, eating), and listening to rock music (especially if it is loud and live). Jefferson P. Jones is the PricewaterhouseCoopers associate professor of accounting at Auburn University. He received his bachelor's and master of accountancy degrees from Auburn University and his PhD in accounting from Florida State University. While earning his CPA, he worked for Deloitte & Touche. He has received numerous teaching awards, including the Outstanding Master of Accou