Graeme Dean
MEc FCPA TIA
Professor
g.dean@econ.usyd.edu.au
Room 305
H69 - The Economics and Business Building
The University of Sydney
NSW 2006 Australia
Phone: +61 2 9351 3107
Fax: +61 2 9351 6638
Graeme Dean is Co-Editor of the Australian-based, ISI-listed accounting journal Abacus, acknowledged as one of the world's leading international accounting journals. He has had many visiting appointments: Hohenheim University, Stuttgart in 1984; University of Canterbury in 1988; in 1997 he was an invited member of the Scientific Committee of the 18th European Accounting Association Annual Congress in Graz (the first Australian to be so invited); in 1999, visiting professor at the University of Wales, Bangor and the James Cusator Ward Visiting Professor at the Glasgow Business School; and in 2000 as an Erskine Visiting Professorial Fellow at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch. In 2004 he was a Visiting Professor at the Universities of Naples and Graz and an invited keynote speaker at the September Accounting History Conference at the University of Wales, Cardiff. The second half of a 2008 Special Studies Program was undertaken at the Universities of Munich and Frankfurt. During that period he was an invited Symposium speaker at an Honorary Doctorate Ceremony at the University of Graz, for Emeritus Professor Ricco Mattessich. In May 2009 Dean chaired on invitation a Symposium on 'Measurement in Accounting', titled: Wanted: Foundations of Accounting Measurement at the European Accounting Association Annual Congress held in Tampere, Finland and also presented seminars at the Stockholm School of Economics.
For nearly thirty five years, Professor Dean's research has comprised three main areas: an analysis of corporate failures and the role of accounting in those failures - as well as an analysis of optimal distributions in liquidations, public sector accounting and accounting for inflation. His latest major work (with Frank Clarke) Indecent Disclsoure: Gilding the Corporate Lily (CUP 2007) was shortlisted for the prestigious Blake Dawson Business Literature Prize for 2007. It is already held in dozens of libraries in Australia and overseas. It extends earlier works in the same area (with Frank Clarke and Kyle Oliver) Corporate collapse: Accounting regulatory, and ethical failure, Cambridge University Press (1997, 1998, 2001; revised edition 2003; the 2003 edition was translated and published in Chinese in 2006). The books draw upon ideas developed previously, including over thirty journal articles, several books and books of readings. The release of these works has raised considerable interest both in Australia and overseas for the promotion of the case that accounting is in chaos in general and, in particular, that creative accounting is more the consequence of complying with the prescribed Accounting Standards than deviating from them. The award of a 2000 ARC Large Grant allowed further pursuit of inquiry (with colleagues Frank Clarke and Erne Houghton) into the accounting, legal and econometric issues related to corporate groups and corporate group liquidations. Several articles have been forthcoming from that research (see publications below).
A 2002 ARC Large Grant (with Professors Walker and Jones and Mr Edwards) was awarded in the area of the financial viability of local councils - a topical political issue with the move to merge councils across Australia.
Dean has successfully supervised four PhDs and is currently supervising three students.
Research Expertise
- Asset valuation
- Corporate failures
- Corporate group liquidations
- Cross guarantees
- Deprival values
- Infrastructure reporting options
- Price and price level accounting
- Public sector accounting