Professor Donald Stokes

Donald Stokes is Professor of Accounting and Head of the Financial Accounting and Auditing Group at the University of Technology, Sydney. He is also part of the management and research team of the Capital Markets CRC Ltd (www.cmcrc.com). This company carries out the activities of a co-operative research centre established by University of Technology, Sydney, the Federal Government of Australia and a number of other universities and industry partners to develop commercial research solutions to enhance the efficiency of operation of Australian and international capital markets.

Donald received his B.Com (Hons) and Masters degrees from the University of Newcastle and his PhD from the Australian Graduate School of Management at the University of New South Wales. He joined UTS with extensive teaching and research experience in Australian and overseas universities including the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University and the University of British Columbia. His primary discipline field is financial accounting, auditing and assurance. The main thrust of his research has centred on the economics of markets for accounting information and auditing. The work is largely empirically based and also includes policy papers directed at topical issues. His recent research has addressed auditor choice models, the organisation of audit and assurance markets, audit independence and audit fees, industry specialisation and audit fee modelling and the value-relevance of accounting disclosures and corporate governance.

His publications appear in leading international research journals such as the Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Accounting Research, Contemporary Accounting Research, Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory and the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy. His work has been used in government inquiries and legislative reforms of corporations law. His opinion on topical issues in relation to the operation of audit markets in Australia is regularly sort by the financial press. His policy papers appear regularly in key industry, commerce and professional journals in Australia relevant to the field.

Donald serves on the Australian Auditing and Assurance Standards Board that develops standards for members of the professional accounting bodies in Australia carrying out audit and assurance work. He has also served on the Consultative Group to the Australian Accounting Standards Board from 1994 to 1998. He has been an Executive Committee member of the International Association for Accounting Education and Research and is a member of the Editorial Board of Abacus. He is currently an associate editor for Accounting and Finance. He served as President (Australia) of the Accounting Association of Australia and New Zealand (AAANZ) for 1997-1998 and was an AAANZ Executive member for a number of years prior to the election to President. He was foundation director of an accounting research centre with the Securities Industry Research Centre of Asia-Pacific from 1998-2001.