Joseph Mason, Ph.D.

Professor of Finance at Louisiana State University and Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and an Academic Affiliate at the BVA Group

Dr. Mason studies the dynamics of risk and financial crises. Dr. Mason has published more than twenty academic articles and numerous book chapters and shorter works. His academic work was the first to show that bank failures in crisis periods may not have been either irrational or particularly costly to economic growth since the banks that failed in that period were, in large part, already severely impaired. His work also demonstrates that while low interest rates help in the midst of a financial crisis, holding interest rates down post-crisis can substantially delay economic recovery.  

Dr. Mason engages actively with current events, legislative activity, and the judiciary. He was a Senior Financial Economist with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (an independent bureau of the U.S. Treasury that acts as the primary regulatory of nationally-chartered banks) and Visiting Scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. He was also a part of the Fannie Mae team that developed and implemented the STAR^TM Servicer Effectiveness Model and helped Calyon/CIB de-risk their mortgage-backed securities warehouse portfolio post-crisis. He has advised the Federal Reserve Board, US Congressional Committees, European Union Parliament, and members of the UK House of Lords on a variety of financial issues.

Dr. Mason has been cited extensively (over 900 times) in a variety of print publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Economist, Bloomberg Business Week, and others. He has appeared in several documentaries and has made numerous television and radio appearances on CNBC, NBC News, and Bloomberg Television.

Dr. Mason is currently a Professor of Finance at Louisiana State University and Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and an Academic Affiliate at the BVA Group.