Stephen Addam Zeff (born July 26, 1933) is an American accounting historian, and Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Accounting at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business,

Rice University William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres. Rice University comp ...

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, Texas, United States. He was inducted into the

Accounting Hall of Fame The Accounting Hall of Fame is an award "recognizing accountants who are making or have made a significant contribution to the advancement of accounting" since the beginning of the 20th century. Inductees are from both accounting academia and pract ...

in 2002.

Vangermeersch, Richard Richard G.J. Vangermeersch (born 1940) is an American economist, and Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the University of Rhode Island, particularly known for his ''History of Accounting: An International Encyclopedia,'' edited with Michael Chatf ...

. "Zeff, Stephaen A. (1933-)." ''History of Accounting: An International Encyclopedia.'' New York: Garland, 1996 pp. 618–619
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Life and work

Zeff was born in Chicago, Illinois, where his father ran a small industrial advertising agency. After his graduation from Highland Park High School in 1951, he went to the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University o ...

, where he obtained his BS in 1955 with a major in accountancy and his MA in 1957. He then moved to the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

, where he received his

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular ...

in 1960 and his PhD in 1962.Stephen Addam Zeff : The Accounting Hall of Fame
at ''fisher.osu.edu.'' Accessed Jam. 9, 2015
Archived
from the original on 4 July 2016 Recently he received an honorary doctorate in economics from the Turku School of Economics and Business Administration, in Finland. During his undergraduate years, Zeff worked as an editor for the Colorado Daily, the student newspaper. He became the newspaper's managing editor in his senior year. In 1955 he became an instructor at the University of Colorado, Boulder. At the University of Michigan, he taught accounting courses, was assistant of Herb Miller revisioning accounting books, and was research assistant at its Bureau of Industrial Relations. After his graduation in 1961, he was appointed assistant professor at

Tulane University The Tulane University of Louisiana (commonly referred to as Tulane University) is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by a cohort of medical doctors, it b ...

, and associate professor in 1963 and professor of accounting in 1966. In 1978 he moved to

, where he is Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Accounting since 1979. Over the years Zeff has been a visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley, University of Chicago, Harvard Business School, Northwestern University, and the University of Texas at Austin. He has also been outside the United States in universities in Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands.

Honors

*In 1988, he received the

American Accounting Association The American Accounting Association (AAA) promotes accounting education, research and practice. The Association mission is to further the discipline and profession of accounting through education, research and service. The organization is the larg ...

’s Outstanding Accounting Educator Award *In 1999 the

AAA AAA, Triple A, or Triple-A is a three-letter initialism or abbreviation which may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Gaming * AAA (video game industry) - a category of high budget video games *'' TripleA'', an open source wargame Mu ...

’s International Accounting Section named him the recipient of its International Accounting Educator Award *Hourglass Award, Academy of Accounting Historians, in both 1973 and 2001 *Basil Yamey Prize, Accounting, Business & Financial History, 2004 *The only non-British member of the academic panel of the Accounting Standards Board of the United Kingdom *From 1981 to 2004, he was the only non-European on the executive committee of the European Accounting Association *From 1991 to 2002, he was the International Accounting Adviser for the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, which recognized him as its Honorary Research Fellow in 2003 *In 2002 he was inducted as the 70th member of

Selected publications

Zeff has authored and/or edited about 25 books and over 100 articles. Books, a selection: *Zeff, Stephen A. ''The Accounting postulates and principles controversy of the 1960s'', 1982. *Zeff, Stephen A. ''Uses of accounting for small business''. 1962. *Zeff, Stephen A. ''The rise of economic consequences''. Division of Research, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University, 1978. Articles, a selection: *Zeff, Stephen A. "Forging accounting principles in five countries: A history and an analysis of trends" (1971). *Dyckman, Thomas R., and Stephen A. Zeff. "Two decades of the Journal of Accounting Research". ''Journal of Accounting Research'' (1984): pages 225–297. *Zeff, Stephen A.
Political lobbying on proposed standards: A challenge to the IASB
. ''Accounting Horizons'' 16.1 (2002): pages 43–54. *Zeff, Stephen A.
How the US accounting profession got where it is today: Part I
. ''Accounting Horizons'' 17.3 (2003): pages 189–205. *Zeff, Stephen A.
How the US accounting profession got where it is today: Part II
. ''Accounting Horizons'' 17.4 (2003): pages 267–286.

References

External links

Personal Page at Rice

Biography at OSU's Accounting Hall of Fame
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zeff, Stephen A. 1933 births Living people Rice University faculty American economists Harvard Business School faculty Highland Park High School (Illinois) alumni University of California, Berkeley faculty Ross School of Business alumni University of Colorado alumni University of Chicago faculty