Jack Stecher, PhD

Email

stecher@ualberta.ca

Phone

(780) 492-5371

Address

3-21E Business Building

11203 Saskatchewan Drive NW

Edmonton AB

T6G 2R6

I have a PhD from University of Minnesota and a bachelor's degree from University of Pennsylvania.  Before coming to University of Alberta, I was at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and at NHH in Bergen, Norway.  In addition to my work in academe, I have over a decade of experience in industry.

My research is primarily focused on the effects of information and disclosure on capital markets and on private debt, with additional interests in more general questions related to decision making under risk and uncertainty. My research collaborations span numerous academic disciplines, including grants received related to finance and to cognitive neuroscience. I have published in top accounting and business journals, and also in economics, operations research, computer science, and analytical philosophy.

My overall teaching philosophy is to focus on the connection between accounting and other core and functional disciplines. I emphasize to my students the interdisciplinary aspects of learning, connecting my classes to what the students cover in the rest of their overall program. Students should see financial accounting as essential for understanding finance and financial economics. Similarly, when I have taught managerial accounting, I have stressed connections to operations, as well as links between cost measurement issues and financial reporting issues. Through learning the details of how accounting works (and it by nature involves details) in part of a broader context of the students’ overall coursework, the students develop an appreciation for and interest in the subject.