Elizabeth Demers

Office:HH 3103

Phone: 519-888-4567 x45944

Email: elizabeth.demers@uwaterloo.ca

CV: Elizabeth Demers, CV (PDF)

Education and certifications

PhD (Business Administration, Accounting) - Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
MSc (Statistics) - Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
MAcc (Master of Accounting) - University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Honours BA, Accounting (Economics minor) - University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Chartered Accountant (CA)*, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario, Canada
Chartered Business Valuator (CBV)*, Canadian Institute of Chartered Business Valuators
Certified Management Accountant (CMA)*, Society of Management Accountants of Canada

* retired from membership

Brief biography

Elizabeth has taught and/or presented her research at institutions and conferences in more than 30 countries around the world. Her current research focus is on corporate sustainability. Recent research examines the role of non-financial information (including linguistic measures derived from textual analysis of corporate communications, ESG summary scores, corporate climate risk disclosures, and firms' LGBTQ-inclusivity) in assessing and predicting firm performance, and the impact of disclosure and communications on the firm value, information asymmetry, and cost of capital. Her studies have been published in the Journal of Accounting Research, the Journal of Financial Economics, Management Science, Review of Accounting Studies, the Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, the Harvard Business Review, and other top outlets, and they are widely cited in both the academic literature and in the financial press (The Economist, Fortune, Forbes, Financial Times, Globe & Mail Report on Business, etc.). Her consulting activities include financial statement analyses and “red flag reviews” for hedge funds and other institutional investors, research and teaching presentations to investment fund managers, and litigation support for the quantification of economic damages.

Teaching

Elizabeth Demers (BA and MAcc, UWaterloo; MSc. and PhD, Stanford University) has taught undergraduate, PhD, Masters of Accounting, Masters in Finance, MBA and Executive MBA students while serving on the faculties of INSEAD (France), the Darden Graduate School of Business (University of Virginia), the University of Rochester, HEC-Lausanne (Switzerland), the Gdańsk University of Technology (Poland), and the University of Michigan.

Research

Peer-reviewed accounting and finance publications

ESG Didn’t Immunize Stocks During the COVID-19 Crisis, But Investments in Intangible Assets Did (with J. Hendrikse, P. Joos, and B. Lev), 2021, Journal of Business Finance & Accounting.
Are ESG Ratings Informative About Companies’ Socially Responsible Behaviors Abroad? Evidence from the Russian Invasion of Ukraine(with D. Ahmed, J. Hendrikse, P. Joos, & B. Lev), 2022, Accountability in a Sustainable World Quarterly, forthcoming.
Oh What a Beautiful Morning! Diurnal Variations in Economic Agents’ Behavior: Evidence from Conference Calls (with B. Lev and J. Chen), 2018, Management Science.
A Rude Awakening: Internet Shakeout in 2000 (with Baruch Lev), 2001, Review of Accounting Studies.
The Marketing Role of IPOs: Evidence from Internet Stocks (with Katharina Lewellen), 2003, Journal of Financial Economics.
- Abbreviated version reproduced in Betriebswirtschaftliche Forschung und Praxis, Vol. 58, No. 5 (October 2006): 468-480.
IPO Failure Risk (with Philip Joos), 2007, Journal of Accounting Research Conference Volume.
The Juxtaposition of Social Surveillance Controls with Traditional Organizational Design Components (with Margaret Shackell and Sally Widener), 2008, Contemporary Accounting Research, Vol. 25, No. 2 (Summer): 605-638. Study funded by CIMA.
The Role of Accounting Information in a Stock Market Bubble: Evidence from Internet IPOs (with Nilahbra Bhattacharya and Philip Joos), 2010, Journal of Business Finance & Accounting.
Contemporaneous Verification of Language: Evidence from Management Earnings Forecasts (with S. Baginski, C. Wang, and J. Yu), 2016,
Review of Accounting Studies.
Linguistic Tone and the Small Trader (with S. Baginski, A. Kausar, and J. Yu), 2018, Accounting, Organizations and Society (Special Conference Edition on New Corporate Disclosures and New Methods).
A Note on Career Concerns and Earnings Management (with C. Wang), 2020, Journal of Business Accounting and Finance Perspectives.

Working papers and works in process

Aggregate Tone and Gross Domestic Product (with F. Gaertner, A. Kausar, H. Li, L. Steele), June 2023.
TCFD Reporting: Early Evidence Related to the Future of Global Climate-Related Disclosures (with J. Hendrikse and M. Metzner), June 2023
Tax Aggressive Behavior and Voluntary Tax Disclosures in Sustainability Reporting (with J. Adams and K. Klassen), November 2022.
The Determinants and Short-Term Consequences of Banks’ Decisions to Join the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (with X. Bai & R. Oberson), June 2022.
Corporate Human Capital Disclosures: Early Evidence from the SEC’s Disclosure Mandate (with V. Wang and K. Wu), August 2022.
Measuring Corporate Human Capital Disclosures: Lexicon, Code, and Research Opportunities (with V. Wang and K. Wu), May 2023.
Corporate Communications Credibility and the Pricing of Textual Sentiment: Evidence from Quarterly Earnings Announcements
(with A. Kausar, C. Vega, and R. Wang).
LGBTQ-Inclusive Policies, Innovation, and Firm Value: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach (with G. Berberich and S. Oz), in progress.

Review and editorial activities

Editor:

Journal of Business Finance & Accounting 2019 –
Contemporary Accounting Research 2023 –

Associate Editor:

Journal of Business Finance & Accounting 2013 – 2018
Quarterly Journal of Finance & Accounting 2015 –
Journal of International Accounting Research 2012 – 2015

Editorial Boards:

Accounting & Finance 2012 –
Contemporary Accounting Research 2021 -
European Accounting and Management Review 2014 –
Journal of Business Accounting and Finance Perspectives 2017 –
Journal of Business Finance & Accounting 2009 - 2012
Journal of International Accounting Research 2011 - 2012
The International Journal of Accounting 2013 - 2016

Honors and awards

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada), Insight Grant, 2021-2025, $156,583
Favorite Professors of the Brightest and Best EMBAs, Poets & Quants for Executives, 2016
Runner-up for the 2015 Darden Faculty Diversity Award (recognizing a member of the Darden faculty for exceptional contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion within the Darden community)
Tsinghua-INSEAD EMBA Programme Teaching Award (one of Top-3 INSEAD Professors)
INSEAD MBA Dean’s Teaching Honor Roll
KPMG & UIUC Business Measurement Program – one of six $5000 prize winners in the
Competitive Manuscript Competition on Risk Measurement and Disclosure, 2003
Simon School Teaching Honor Roll (awarded to top 5 instructors)
CIMA grant for project on Strategy and Performance Measurement in New Economy Companies with Sally Widener and Margaret Shackell-Dowell, 2001, $15,000
PAC-10 Doctoral Consortium Fellow, 1996 & 1997
American Academic Accounting Association Fellowship Award, 1994
Society of Management Accountants of Canada Doctoral Fellowship, 1994-97