Joseph Cheng, PhD, CFA

Associate Professor of Finance

Graziadio Business School

Biography

Dr. Joseph Cheng is an associate professor of finance and the Program Chair for the Master of Science Applied Finance Program at the Graziadio Business School. He had served as the director for the Master of Science in Finance Program at a university in Hong Kong and has taught finance courses for many years as a tenured associate professor before joining the Graziadio Business School faculty at Pepperdine University in 2019.

Dr. Cheng has previously received a teaching excellence award from the Academy of Finance and holds the CFA designation. He is currently teaching Fixed Income Securities, Corporate Finance, and Derivatives. He enjoys introducing students to techniques and models that improve upon those that are taught in conventional textbooks. Furthermore, Dr. Cheng believes in the importance of whole-person education in preparing students to succeed in an ever-increasingly challenging world.

Dr. Cheng’s research interest lies in improving conventional approaches to solving financial problems. His area of research includes equity valuation, bond valuation, risk and leverage, and various other subjects. He is currently working on a capital structure model that generates both beta for equity and beta for debt simultaneously at any level of financial leverage. Another project he is currently working on is improving the Constant Dividend Growth Model by addressing equilibrium to arrive at a complete valuation model in a constant growth environment.

Education

PhD in Economics
Binghamton University, New York
Dissertation nominated for an outstanding dissertation award.
Specialization in Public Finance
BS in Accounting
Binghamton University, New York

Research
Awards

Cheng, Joseph., Alfred Lam. “A New Metric for Evaluating Performance of REITs.” Real Estate Finance Volume 36, No 3. (Winter 2020): 125-132
Cheng, Joseph., Jack Hui “How Close is the Implied Volatility Derived from Black Scholes for Individual Stocks to VIX.” Journal of Financial Issues. Spring 2019
Cheng, Joseph., Fitzpatrick, Julie. “Integrating Finance with Production to Determine Optimal Output.” The Journal of Applied Financial Research. Volume 1 (2019) : 6-16
Cheng, Joseph., Abraham Mulugetta. “Disparity of Interest Rate Parity Condition- Absolute and Relative Form Evaluated.” The Journal of Applied Financial Research. Volume 1 (2018):36-48
Cheng, Joseph., Lam, Alfred. “Optimal Weights for Accounting Earnings and Cash Flows for Explaining Stock Return of Insurance Companies.” Journal of Insurance and Financial Management. Volume 3, Issue 4 (2017): 33-43.
Cheng, Joseph., Abraham Mulugetta. “Examining the Interest Rate Parity between U.S. and Japan.” The Journal of American Academy of Business. Volume 22, No.2 (March 2017): 63-67.
Cheng, Joseph., Miller, Cameron. “Analysis of Tracking Error of Oil Sector Leveraged Exchange Traded Funds.” International Research Journal of Applied Finance. Vol VII, Issue 6 (June 2016):
Cheng, Joseph., Cheng, Joshua. “Estimating the Impact of Growth on Bond Returns.” Journal of Business and Economics. (Issue 2, 2016)
Cheng, Joseph., Fitzpatrick, Julie. “Estimating the Link Between Quantitative Easing 3 and Business Investment for Consideration.” The BRC Academy Journal of Business. Vol. 5, No. 1 (March 2015)
Fitzpatrick, Julie., Joseph Cheng. “An investigation of United States and Hong Kong business students’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility” Journal of Academic and Business Ethics. Vol 8: July 2014
Cheng, Joseph., Fitzpatrick J., and Bramhandkar A. “An Arbitrage Model for Calculating Firm. Beta at Different Leverage Levels.” Accounting and Finance Research 1.2 (2012): 207-215.
Cheng, Joseph., Abraham Mulugetta. “Risk and Income Effects on Closed-End Funds Using Derived CAPM Valuation Model.” Academy of Business Research Journal. Volume III (2012): 55-67.
Cheng, Joseph., Jeffery Lippitt. “Business Cycle and Optimal Timing for Investment.” The Journal of Prediction Markets 6.1 (2012): 31-41.
Cheng, Joseph., Elia Kacapyr. “Estimating the Current Value of Time-Varying Beta.” Journal of Applied Business and Economics 13.2 ( 2012): 167-174.
Vigids Boasson., Cheng, Joseph and Emil Boasson. “Applying Modern Portfolio Theory to Municipal Financial and Capital Budgeting Decisions.” Public and Municipal Finance 1.1 (January 2011): 58-65.
Cheng, Joseph. “Differentiating Bullish from Bearish Factors in the Arbitrage Pricing Theory.” American Journal of Business Education 3.9 (2010): 13-16.
Cheng, Joseph., Fitzpatrick, and Seyedian. “A Model for Evaluating the Tradeoff Between Earnings per Share and Financial Leverage.” Business Research Consortium Journal of Advances in Business 1.1 (2010): 1-13.
Don Simmons., Joseph Cheng “An Alternative Approach to Computing Economic Run Quantity.” International Journal of Production Research 46.3 (February 2008): 837-847.
Cheng, Joseph., Abraham Mulugetta. “Are the Discounts for Closed-End Funds Big Enough?” The International Journal of Finance Vol. 18, No. 1, (2006).
Cheng, Joseph., Alka Bramhandkar. “Developing a Practical Formula for Optimal Capital Structure.” Pennsylvania Journal of Business and Economics Volume 12, No.1, (2006).
Cheng, Joseph, “Optimal R&D Expenditure- A Value Maximization Approach.” International Research Journal of Finance and Economics Issue 5, (September 2006).
Cheng, Joseph, & Vigdis Boasson. “New York Municipal Bonds as a Leading Fiscal Indicator.” New York Economic Review (Fall 2005).
Cheng, Joseph., Vigdis Boasson, and Emil Boasson “Are Investment Managers Investing Ethically at a Disadvantage?” Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship Volume 9, No. 4, (2004).
Cheng, Joseph, Vigdis Boasson. “Using the Time Weighted Method to Estimate Betas of Emerging Markets.” Managerial Finance Volume 30, No. 3, (2004) (invited by editor.)
Cheng, Joseph, “A Breakthrough in Transfer Pricing: The Renegotiate-Any-Time System.” Management Accounting Quarterly (Winter 2002).
Cheng, Joseph, Robert Ryan. “Predicting Stock-Bond Correlations.” Managerial Finance Volume 28, No. 4, (2002) (reviewed by editor only.)
Cheng, Joseph, Abraham Mulugetta. “Estimating Theoretical Discount for World Equity Closed-End Funds.” The Journal of Current Research in Global Business (Winter 2002).
Cheng, Joseph, Rajib Sanyal. “Polytech: A British Chemical Company in China.” Business Case Journal (Winter 2000).
Cheng, Joseph, “Why is a Consumption Tax Better for China?” New York Economic Review (Fall 1998).
Cheng, Joseph, Niel Massa. “The Irrelevance of Preferential Treatments of Capital Gains to Business Investment Decisions.” New York Economic Review (Spring 1993).
Cheng, Joseph., George W. Kester, and Thomas W. Bixler. “A New Way to Evaluate Default Risk in Commercial Lending.” The Journal of Commercial Banking Lending (August 1989).
Cheng, Joseph, “An Alternative Financial Risk Indicator.” Financial Management Letters (Autumn 1988).
Cheng, Joseph, “Market Utilization of Price Adjusted Earnings.” Journal of Applied Business Research (Spring 1988).
Cheng, Joseph, “An Empirical Analysis of the Significance of Current Cost Earnings and Constant Dollar Earnings in Determining Share Prices.” New York Economic Review (Spring 1988).
Cheng, Joseph, “An Econometric Analysis of the Effect of the Flat Income Tax on Household Savings.” New York Economic Review (Spring 1987).

2018: Teaching Excellence Award (Finance Team) – Lingnan University (Hong Kong)
2011: Teaching Excellence Award (Individual) - Academy of Finance (Chicago).
2010: Outstanding Paper Award on “A CAPM Valuation Model for Closed End Funds” with Abraham Mulugetta at the 2010 Conference of the Association for Global Business.