Abstract The article profiles Joel Dean, an economist and discusses his contributions to management accounting. He started his career when most business programs were part of the offerings of economics departments and others were staffed by people who mingled comfortably with economists. His book "Managerial Economics" became required reading for the generation of accounting scholars who entered their productive periods in the 1950s and 1960s. It was the text for graduate courses bearing the same name and was widely used as required reading in the managerial accounting courses that were being developed in that era. It was used in finance courses as well, and was given the 1952 national book award of the American Marketing Association. Dean had another influence, perhaps even more fundamental. "Managerial Economics" and Dean's other 1951 book, "Capital Budgeting," made little mention of discounted cash flow approaches to capital expenditure evaluation. In 1952, however, he studied the use of this method at The Atlantic Refining Co., and became convinced that it was both practically applicable and conceptually superior to other methods.
A Sun, study studied this question.