PhD Candidate in Accounting · Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary
On the 2026–2027 academic job market
I study how firms create, acquire, and report performance, and how those choices shape earnings quality, valuation, and post-deal outcomes.
UTD-24 = UT Dallas Top-24 research-journal list (premier field outlets).
Hi, I'm Jonathan. I'm an archival accounting researcher, and I study how firms create, acquire, and report value in an economy that keeps outrunning the tools we use to measure it.
What I care about is easy to say and hard to answer: how do firms grow and invest today, and how should accounting capture it? Companies now allocate capital in ways that were once unthinkable, or simply unmeasurable. Technology finally lets us see those choices, and it also changes what earnings mean, because as the environment shifts, long-standing measures quietly begin to report something different than they once did. I work at that seam, combining mathematics, real technical skill, and an accountant's judgment to figure out what the numbers represent now, and what they should.
That conviction is why I build my own data. Compustat aggregates away the detail that financial reporting actually contains, so I wrote an XBRL extraction pipeline that pulls granular items straight from SEC filings, starting with purchase price allocations and extensible to almost anything a firm discloses. Because XBRL is mandated and tagged under FASB standards, the data comes out already structured, with no NLP guesswork, no regex hunting for section headings, and no room for a model to hallucinate. It is dependable, granular evidence that reaches well beyond the classic datasets, and it opens questions the aggregated numbers cannot.
In the classroom, I want students to see accounting as part of the world they actually live in. I follow technology and where it is heading, and I bring that in: not just debits and credits, but what these tools are, where they genuinely help, where they mislead, and how to use them well. I teach ACCT 323 to 138 students, and I try to be the kind of instructor who will go over an idea a second and a third time until it clicks.
Outside research, I compete in coffee. Chasing a better cup is its own craft, precise and endlessly improvable, which is probably why it pulls me in. My aim across all of it stays the same: enjoy the work, enjoy the coffee, be the best version of myself I can be, and be happy doing it.
Job Market Paper · Solo-authored · 2026
The finding, plainly
Two market measures of how earnings are valued moved in opposite directions for four decades. Response coefficients fell 38%, valuation multiples rose 108%. Not a contradiction: they capture different earnings attributes, and the gap traces the rise of creative destruction and intangible-driven competition in the U.S. economy.
Read the paperWorking Paper 2nd-round R&R · UTD-24
The finding, plainly
Even firms that acquire aggressively keep building in-house. Whether growth comes from buying or building predicts materially different future revenue growth and volatility, and the direction depends on the asset type.
Read on SSRNIllustrative of the directional pattern: acquired PP&E drives growth, while internal organizational and innovation capital drive growth and carry higher volatility.
Working Paper
The finding, plainly
Small, high-growth firms nurture the targets they buy; large, slow-growth firms acquire to remove a competitor. Some industries systematically sacrifice a target's potential to soften competition. We separate the two using whether post-acquisition revenue traces the target's prior business.
Read on SSRNJune 2026
Read in Harvard Business ReviewMarch 2023
Read in California Management ReviewIntroductory Managerial Accounting (ACCT 323) · two sections · 138 students · Haskayne School of Business
Introductory & Intermediate Financial Accounting; Master-level Financial Accounting Concepts
“I have really enjoyed taking ACCT 323 with Jonathan. He is very kind and will go over concepts more than once to make sure we understand what is being asked of us.”
Student course survey, Winter 2026Ph.D. Accounting, University of Calgary · M.Acc. and B.Acc., Universitas Surabaya
Ph.D. Research Excellence Award · Haskayne Founders' Circle Doctoral Scholarship · CPA Alberta Research Grant
AAA/Deloitte Foundation · FARS Midyear (AAA) · Contemporary Accounting Research
Ad Hoc Reviewer and Discussant, CAAA Annual Meeting
Python · self-built XBRL extraction pipeline turning SEC filings into structured firm-level data (purchase price allocation and beyond)
I'm always glad to talk research, teaching, or where accounting is heading next. Whether you're on a search committee, a potential coauthor, or simply curious, email is the fastest way to reach me, and I'll always write back.