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Pepperdine | Graziadio Business School
Joetta Forsyth, PhD Associate Professor of Finance

Joetta Forsyth, PhD

Professor of Finance
Graziadio Business School
West LA
310.568.5633
Curriculum Vitae

Biography

Dr. Forsyth attended University of Chicago, where she completed the coursework for her bachelor's and master's degrees within four years. Her master's thesis was completed while working at Lexecon Inc., where she conducted economic research used by expert witnesses in court cases and regulatory hearings. Projects included providing economic research used in shareholder litigation, antitrust hearings and court cases, breach of contract cases, and price-fixing cases among others. Dr. Forsyth received a PhD from a joint program with the Harvard Business School and Economics Department in 1995 with concentrations in Finance and Industrial Organization. She has been a professor at University of Michigan Business School and USC's Marshall School of business. After a brief stint as the president of an internet startup, she joined the faculty at Pepperdine's Graziadio Business School in 2002.

Her research interests include theory and empirical work in corporate finance and product pricing. Topics of interest are: how product pricing affects the risk of the firm, the relationship between misreporting of mortgage loan application income and bank behavior, the relationship between bank employee compensation and risky lending practices, the relationship between CEO compensation and stock misvaluation, corporate governance, and the incentive effects of high leverage.

Education

  • PhD, Harvard Business School & Department of Economics, Business Economics, 1995.
    First year honors, Harvard MBA program.
    Thesis: "Leverage and Restructuring: Theory and Application to Corporate Control in the 1980s"

  • MA, University of Chicago, BA/MA Program in Economics, 1984.
    Masters Thesis: "A Theoretical & Empirical Analysis of Dependence in Stock Returns"

  • BA, University of Chicago, BA/MA Program in Economics, 1983.

 

2020

Are Narcissistic CEOs a Blessing or a Curse? Practical Methods to Measure and Respond to Narcissism in Leaders, Graziadio Business Review, 23(2), with Jillian Alderman, Charla Griffy-Brown, and Richard Walton. Retrieved from https://gbr.pepperdine.edu/2020/09/are-narcissistic-ceos-a-blessing-or-a-curse/

Instilling Christian Principles of Business Success in the Classroom, Christian Business Academy Review, 15(1). Retrieved from https://cbfa-cbar.org/index.php/cbar/article/view/531

2017

How Religious Beliefs Influence Financial Decision-Making: Implications for Business Leaders, Graziadio Business Review, 20(3), with Jillian Alderman and Richard Walton

2016

Possible Evidence of Income falsification on Mortgage Application During The Housing Bubble, Journal of Business and Finance Research, 5(2), with James DiLellio.

2015

House Price Increases and Previously Rejected Mortgages, Journal of Accounting and Finance, 15(6), with Peggy Crawford.

Was There a Regulatory Approval Market for Mortgages? Journal of Financial Economic Policy, 7(4) with Peggy Crawford.

Think “It’s Unethical, But Legal”? Think Again? Academy of Business Journal, V.1 107-115 with Linnea McCord and Terry Young.

Is Cyprus the Warning Bell that Bank Deposits are No Longer Safe?, Graziadio Business Review, 18(2) with Linnea McCord and Terry Young.

2014

Who Received TARP Bail-Outs? Did Widespread, Government-Detected Regulatory Filing Errors Predict Which Lenders Were Subsequently Bailed Out Under TARP?, Graziadio Business Review, 2(17), http://gbr.pepperdine.edu/2014/10/who-received-tarp-bail-outs.

Government‑Sponsored Enterprises and Income Falsification on Mortgage Applications, International Journal of Business, Accounting and Finance, 8(1), with James DiLellio.

2011

Financial Wisdom: Personal Finance and Career Skills to Guide Teens and Young Adults on Their Journey to Success and Happiness, Vol. 1, Financial Wisdom Preparatory Institute, LLC.

Examining Bank Employee Compensation and Residential Mortgage Loan Volume at the State Level, International Journal of Business, Accounting, and Finance, 4(1), 18-32, with Maretno Augus Harjoto.

2009

The Impact of Mortgage Loans Transferred on Bank Employee Compensation, Global Business & Finance Review, 14(1), 77-85, with Maretno Augus Harjoto.

2008

Learning to Love Financial Market Barbarians, Yes Traders Do Make a Valuable Contribution to Society, Graziadio Business Report, 11(1.) http://gbr.pepperdine.edu/081/traders.html

1995

Leverage and Restructuring: Theory and Application to Corporate Control in the 1980s, Ph.D. Thesis, Harvard University.

1992

Thermo Electron, Harvard Business School Press, case study 9-292-104, with Carliss Baldwin.

  • 2019 Pepperdine 50th Anniversary Research Reward.
  • 2009 Research Award. International Academy of Business and Public Administration Disciplines.
  • 2008 Best Paper (in session) Award, Association for Global Business Conference.
  • 2007 Top Ten Session Paper: Financial Management Association.

2020

Are Narcissistic CEOs a Blessing or a Curse? Practical Methods to Measure and Respond to Narcissism in Leaders. The International Academy of Business and Public Administration Disciplines Fall Conference, Online. Jillian Alderman, Charla Griffy-Brown, and Richard Walton, coauthors.

2019

The Relationship Between Product Price and Systematic Risk: Beyond Marginal Revenue Equals Marginal Cost. The International Academy of Business and Public Administration Disciplines Conference, Athens Greece. Richard Walton, coauthor.

2015

What Mortgage Rebounds Reveal About the House Price Run-Up. Academic Forum, Graziadio Business School, Pepperdine University, West Los Angeles, CA. [Compilation of research papers authored alone, and also coauthored with Peggy Crawford and James DiLellio.]

2014

Income Falsification on Mortgage Applications during the Housing Bubble. World Finance Conference, Venice, Italy. With James DiLellio.

Income Falsification on Mortgage Applications during the Housing Bubble. Annual Meeting, Southwestern Finance Association, Dallas, TX. With James DiLellio.

2013

A Study of Income Falsification on Mortgage Applications. Academic Forum, Graziadio Business School, Pepperdine University, West Los Angeles, CA. With James DiLellio.

2012

GSEs and Income Falsification on Mortgage Applications. Conference, The International Academy of Business and Public Administration Disciplines, Honolulu, HI. with James DiLellio.

2009

Examining Bank Employee Compensation and Residential Mortgage Loan Volume at the State Level, with Maretno Augus Harjoto. IABPAD Annual Conference. Given Research Award.

2008

Mortgage Loan Transfers and Bank Employee Compensation. Association for Global Business. With Maretno Augus Harjoto. Received Best Paper (in session) Award.

2007

Misvaluation, CEO Equity-Based Compensation, and Corporate Governance. Financial Management Association. With Siew Hong Teoh and Yinglei Zhang. Presented at a top ten session.

2012

Julian Virtue Award, Pepperdine University Graziadio Business School.

2011

Funds for Excellence, Pepperdine University Graziadio Business School.

Topics

  • Real options
  • Interest rate swaps
  • Hedging
  • The workings of financial markets and institutions
  • Mergers
  • Takeovers
  • LBOs
  • Leveraged recapitalizations
  • Corporate oversight
  • Introductory finance

Courses

  • Fully Employed MBA

  • Advanced Financial Management

  • Money and Capital Markets

  • Financial Management of the Firm

  • Various business simulations

  • Full-Time MBA

  • Corporate Control Topics in Finance

  • Corporate Finance.

  • Bachelor of Science in Management

  • Managerial Finance

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