Meet the New Faculty: Troy Janes

August 16, 2007

As Troy Janes prepares for his first semester as an assistant professor of accounting at the Rutgers School of Business—Camden, he reflects on the qualities that attracted him to Rutgers-Camden: the collegiality among business school faculty and the size of the campus.

“I like the atmosphere,” he says. “The fact that the class sizes are smaller means I’ll be able to get to know my students.” In addition, he is impressed by the friendly intermingling between academic departments, which encourages a better environment for students and professors alike.

Janes, who comes to Rutgers from SUNY-Buffalo, will teach intermediate accounting and auditing. But he brings more to his teaching than just strong academic credentials. Before earning a doctorate at the University of Michigan, Janes spent five years as an auditor for Ernst & Young in Philadelphia. He hopes his students will appreciate the real-world experience he can offer along with academic theories.

“When I was in school, I always liked teachers who could share war stories,” he says.

As for research, Janes studies the role of accounting information in predicting financial distress of companies, specifically looking at the difference between reported net income and actual cash.

His other research interests include the use of accounting information in financial contracting and behavioral influences in stock markets. While in graduate school, Janes conducted a study with a professor that looked at the effect of lunar cycles on stock markets. After analyzing 100 years of data, the researchers found that stock returns were higher during the new moon.