Rebecca Lester
Research Statement
Research Interests
- Taxation
- Firm Investment and Employment
- Multinational Location Decision
- Mergers and Acquisitions
Teaching Statement
Bio
Rebecca Lester joined the Stanford Graduate School of Business as an Assistant Professor of Accounting in July 2015. She studies the effects of accounting rules and tax policies on domestic and multinational firm investment and employment decisions. Her recent work has examined how firms respond to certain national-level tax rate incentives, such as those related to U.S. manufacturing and those for European intellectual property income. Additional work examines state, local and neighborhood-level incentives, including firm-specific tax subsidies and the recent Opportunity Zones tax incentive, as well as the role of tax net operating losses in both corporate investment and cash holdings decisions.
Professor Lester received her PhD in Accounting from the MIT Sloan School of Management and both a B.A. and Masters of Accountancy from the University of Tennessee. Prior to her studies at MIT, she was a Manager in the M&A Transaction Services practice of Deloitte in Chicago, Illinois.
Academic Degrees
- PhD, Accounting, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2015
- Masters of Accountancy, University of Tennessee, 2002
- BS, Accounting, University of Tennessee, 2002
Academic Appointments
- Associate Professor of Accounting, Stanford GSB, 2019–present
- Assistant Professor of Accounting, Stanford GSB, 2015–2019
Professional Experience
- Manager, Deloitte M&A Transaction Services, 2003–2008
- Tax Senior Consultant, Deloitte Lead Tax Services, 2001–2003
- CPA, State of Illinois (Inactive), 2003
Awards and Honors
- Michelle R. Clayman Faculty Scholar, 2019–2020
- Michelle R. Clayman Faculty Scholar, 2018–2019
- Best 40 Business School Professors under 40, Poets & Quants, 2018
- Michelle R. Clayman Faculty Scholar, 2017–2018
- R. Michael and Mary Shanahan Faculty Scholar, 2016–2017
- ATA/PwC 2016 Outstanding Tax Dissertation Award
- MIT Sloan Thesis Prize, First Place
- Stanford MBA Distinguished Teaching Award - Honorable Mention (2016 and 2018)