Irfan Safdar

Irfan Safdar, PhD

  • Associate Professor
Media Expertise:
  • Economics & Finance
  • International Relations
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Affiliated Programs

Education

  • PhD, Accounting (2012)
    Texas A&M University--College Station (TX)
  • MBA, Finance (2003)
    University of Rochester (NY)
  • MS, Applied Economics (2000)
    University of Rochester (NY)
  • MS, Finance (1997)
    Boston College (MA)
  • BS, Physics (1993)
    Haverford College (PA)

About Me

I received my bachelor's in physics from Haverford College and went to work at Smith Barney, an investment bank. I followed that with a master's at Boston College and MBA from University of Rochester. I received my PhD in Accounting from Texas A&M University in College Station.  

I have always loved teaching which is what drew me to academia. My teaching approach is to help students use their intuition to make new ideas easy to understand combined with practice in practical skill building. I believe in helping students become better thinkers and helping them see that they are more capable and smarter than they realize. The hallmark of my teaching is an emphasis on developing intuition on business problems. I also like to encourage students to establish clear academic and professional goals for themselves and then do my best to show them how to achieve these goals. Often this means a greater commitment on my part to promote the academic and professional well-being of students but I enjoy that.

Research Interests

My research interests primarily involve capital markets. In particular, I am interested in how accounting information relates to the fundamental value of the firm and why market prices of firms' stocks diverge from fundamental value.  
 

Publications

  • Safdar, Irfan. "The Information Content of Aggregate Profitability." The British Accounting Review (May 2018).
  • Ahmed, Anwer S., and Irfan Safdar. "Evidence on the Presence of Representativeness Bias in Investor Interpretation of Consistency in Sales Growth." Management Science (2016).
  • Ahmed, Anwer S., and Irfan Safdar. "Dissecting Stock Price Momentum Using Financial Statement Analysis."  Accounting and Finance (March 2018)

Professional Affiliations & Memberships

American Accounting Association

Awards

  • Distinguished Teaching Award - University of Rochester, Each Year (2004-2008)

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