Visiting Academic Scholars Appointed to the Office of Economic Analysis

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2004-126

Washington, D.C., Sept. 8, 2004 -- The Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of Economic Analysis today announced that Mahendrarajah Nimalendran and C.S. Agnes Cheng have been named as Visiting Academic Scholars. They will each serve for one-year terms.

Nimalendran is currently the Bank of America Professor of Finance in The Warrington College of Business, University of Florida. He received his Ph.D. in 1990 from the University of Michigan in business administration specializing in finance. His area of expertise is market microstructure, and he is an associate editor of the Journal of Financial Markets. His recent research has focused on the interface between market microstructure, corporate finance, and asset pricing. While at the Commission, Nimalendran will join other researchers on projects involving work on market regulation, market structures and execution quality, issues related to disclosure of information and other areas as dictated by SEC priorities.

Dr. Cheng is currently a Professor of Accounting in the C.T. Bauer College of Business, University of Houston. She received her Ph.D. in 1983 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a major in accounting. Dr. Cheng is an authority on the subject of value-relevance of earnings and she is also widely known for her service to the international academic accounting community. She has published a research monograph and numerous journal articles, served on the editorial board of the Accounting Review and three other journals, and served as a vice president of both the American Accounting Association and the International Association for Accounting Education and Research. Dr. Cheng's current research interests include earnings and financial reporting quality, the relationship of disclosures to the cost of capital, forecasts of earnings and cash flows, measures of earnings management, and methodology issues. While at the Commission, Dr. Cheng will join other researchers on projects that examine issues of financial reporting, accounting quality, corporate governance, and other areas as dictated by SEC priorities.