Dr. Joseph R. Mason
Drexel University LeBow College of Business and
The Wharton School
(215) 895-2944 ph
(215) 895-2955 fx
jrm27drexel.edu

EDUCATION:

Ph.D., M.S., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. B.S., Arizona
State University

BACKGROUND:

Dr. Mason is an Associate Professor of Finance at Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business, and a Senior Fellow at the Wharton School. Prior to joining Drexel University, Dr. Mason was a financial economist with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Finance at Georgetown University School of Business. Dr. Mason's current research projects include investigating the micro and macroeconomic effects of bankruptcy and liquidation procedures; the incidence and cost of systemic risk; and the management of idiosyncratic risks posed by new forms of bank lending, asset-backed securities, collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and securitization. Dr. Mason's research spans the fields of corporate finance, financial intermediation, financial history, and monetary economics, focusing on issues related to both theory and public policy.

Dr. Mason has consulted and advised many government agencies, research institutions, and corporations, including The Conference Board, Inc., Coventry First, Deloitte, Fannie Mae, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, FirstPlus Financial (in conjunction with Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, and Deutsche Bank), The Group of Thirty, Pricewaterhouse-Coopers, Wachovia, The World Bank Group, and XE Capital Management LLC. In litigation, Dr. Mason has acted as testifying or non-testifying expert for firms such as Allstate Insurance, AMBASE Corporation/Carteret Federal Savings Bank, Ameriquest Mortgage, Equities First Holding, LLC, Fannie Mae, GMAC Commercial Mortgage, Superior Federal Savings Bank, World Financial Network National Bank. In regulatory matters, Dr. Mason has testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, and the Federal Reserve Board and advised the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) on structured finance.

Dr. Mason's consulting has involved issues ranging from mortgage, home equity loan, home equity line of credit, auto, and credit card servicing, and securitization, to discrimination and disparate impact in consumer lending and insurance pricing, valuing distressed securities, the investor recoveries and efficient liquidations of bankrupt firms, and economic valuations of complex investment and lending arrangements involving asset-backed securities, collateralized debt obligations, and hedge funds.

Dr. Mason's research is regularly cited in national and international press publications such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Times, the Economist, Financial Times, LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Toronto Globe & Mail, Barrons, Business Week, die Zeit, Neue Zürcher Zeitung am Sonntag, Financial Times-Germany, MIST News, Business Week, Forbes, Fortune, Portfolio Magazine, Bloomberg Magazine, Credit Magazine, American Banker, BNA’s Banking News, Investment Dealers’ Digest, Inman News, Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, Realty Times, and the Philadelphia Business Review, and syndicated on Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg, KnightRidder Syndicate, MarketWatch- Dow Jones Newswire, and NBC Nightly News. Dr. Mason is a regular guest on CNBC and Bloomberg Television, and has made numerous live and taped appearances CNBC Asia, Comcast CN8 News, NPR, Bloomberg Radio, and NBC Radio. Dr. Mason has a weekly Economic Commentary on KYW NewsRadio, Philadelphia.

Dr. Mason has published academic articles in the American Economic Review; Journal of Business; Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking; Journal of Banking and Finance; Pacific-Basin Finance Journal; Journal of Financial Services Research; Research in Banking and Finance; and Explorations in Economic History, and book chapters in Resolution of Financial Distress (World Bank Group, Stijn Claessens, et al., eds.); Privatization, Corporate Governance and Transition Economies in East Asia (NBER, Takatoshi Ito and Anne Krueger, eds.); and Too-Big-To Fail: Policies and Practices in Government Bailouts (Greenwood Publishing, Benton E. Gup ed.).

Dr. Mason is the recipient of research grants or awards from the National Science Foundation, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Drexel University, and the University of Illinois. He serves or has served as advisor and consultant to many agencies and firms, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, The Conference Board, the G-30, the World Bank Group, and numerous private firms.

Professor Mason teaches in the areas of corporate finance, financial markets and institutions, and risk management and derivatives. He teaches the writing intensive course in Money and Banking and is a founding member of Drexel’s Writing Intensive Curriculum Implementation Group.

Professor Mason is a member of the American Finance Association, the Financial Management Association, the Cliometrics Society, the Economic History Association, Beta Gamma Sigma, and Omicron Delta Epsilon. Curriculum Vita.

ACADEMIC ARTICLES (Working Paper versions are available at Mason's SSRN Author Page):

“Bank Asset Liquidation and the Propagation of the Great Depression.” (with Ali Anari and James Kolari) Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, August 2005 (37:4), pp. 753-773. This paper is a revised version of Wharton Financial Institutions Center Working Paper #02-35. This paper was listed in the Social Science Research Network's Top Ten All Time Download and Top Ten Recent Download lists for Banking & Insurance Abstracts, October 2002, and the Top Ten Recent Download list for Economic History, November 2002.

“A Real Options Approach to Bankruptcy Costs: Evidence from Failed Commercial Banks during the 1990s.” Journal of Business, July 2005 (79:3), pp. 1523-53. This paper is a revised version of Wharton Financial Institutions Center Working Paper #02-20. This paper was listed in the Social Science Research Network's Top Ten Recent Download lists for Banking & Financial Institutions, Corporate Finance, and Derivatives, November 2002 (132 downloads in the first month). An earlier version also circulated on SSRN as “What Do We Know About Bankrupt Firm Liquidation Rates? Evidence from Commercial Bank Liquidations during the 1930s and 1990s.”

“Credit Card Securitization and Regulatory Arbitrage,” (with Charles Calomiris). Journal of Financial Services Research, August 2004 (26:1), pp. 5-27 (lead article). This paper is a revised version of Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Working Paper no. 03-7, April 2003.

“What is the Value of Recourse to Asset Backed Securities? A Study of Credit Card Bank ABS Rescues.” (with Eric Higgins). Journal of Banking and Finance, April 2004 (28:4), pp. 857-874. This paper is a revised version of Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Working Paper no. 03-6, April 2003.

“How to Restructure Failed Banking Systems: Lessons from the U.S. in the 1930s and Japan in the 1990s.” (with Charles Calomiris) Privatization, Corporate Governance and Transition Economies in East Asia, Takatoshi Ito and Anne Krueger, eds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2004, pp. 375-420. This paper is a revised version of NBER Working Paper no. 9624, April 2003.

“Fundamentals, Panics and Bank Distress during the Depression.” (with Charles Calomiris). American Economic Review, December 2003 (93:5), pp. 1615-1647. This paper is a revised version of NBER Working Paper no. 7919, September 2000. This paper was listed in the Social Science Research Network's Top Ten Recent Download list for Economic History, January 2003.

“Consequences of U.S. Bank Distress during the Great Depression.” (with Charles Calomiris). American Economic Review, June 2003 (93:3), pp. 937-947.

“Too-big-to-fail, Government Bailouts, and Managerial Incentives: The Case of Reconstruction Finance Corporation Assistance to the Railroad Industry during the Great Depression.” (with Daniel Schiffman) Too-Big-To Fail: Policies and Practices in Government Bailouts, Benton E. Gup, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003, pp. 49-75.

“The Political Economy of RFC Assistance during the Great Depression.” Explorations in Economic History, April 2003
(40:2), pp. 101-121.

“Do Lender of Last Resort Policies Matter? The Effects of Reconstruction Finance Corporation Assistance to Banks.” Journal of Financial Services Research, September 2001 (20:1), pp. 77-95.

“Reconstruction Finance Corporation Assistance to Financial Institutions and Commercial & Industrial Enterprise in the US Great Depression, 1932 – 1937.” In Resolution of Financial Distress, Stijn Claessens, Simeon Djankov, and Ashoka Mody, eds. Washington: World Bank Press, 2001, pp. 167-204.

“Demographics and Personal Bankruptcies.” Research in Banking and Finance, November 2000 (1:1), pp. 229-257.

“Contagion and Bank Failures during the Great Depression: The Chicago Banking Panic of June 1932.” (with Charles Calomiris). American Economic Review, December 1997 (87:5), pp. 863-884. This paper is a revised version of NBER Working Paper no. 4934, November 1994.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS:

Testimony before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee on the Judiciary, “The Looming Foreclosure Crisis: How to Help Families Save Their Homes, “(December 5, 2007).

Testimony before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises, “Hearing on the Role of Credit Rating Agencies in the Structured Finance Market," (September 27, 2007).

Testimony before the Federal Reserve Board, “Hearing on the Home Equity Lending Market and Regulation under the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act,” (June 13, 2007).

“Credit Card Securitization, Recourse, and Regulatory Arbitrage.” (with Eric Higgins and Charles Calomiris). Bank Structure and Competition Conference Proceedings. Chicago: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, May 2003.

“A Real Options Approach to Bankruptcy Costs: Evidence from Failed Commercial Banks during the 1990s.” Bank Structure and Competition Conference Proceedings. Chicago: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, May 2002.

“Causes of U.S. Bank Distress during the Great Depression.” (with Charles Calomiris) Bank Structure and Competition Conference Proceedings. Chicago: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, May 2001, pp. 530-554.

“Contagion and Bank Failures during the Great Depression: The Chicago Banking Panic of June 1932.” (with Charles Calomiris) The Regulation and Supervision of Banks. Maximilian J. B. Hall, ed. London: Edward Elgar Publishers 2000.

“The Speed of Bank Liquidation and the Propagation of the U.S. Great Depression.” (with Ali Anari and James Kolari) Bank Structure and Competition Conference Proceedings. Chicago: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, May 2000, pp. 320-345.

High-LTV Lending: Problem or Cure? (with Charles Calomiris) Washington: American Enterprise Institute, 1998. Also excerpted in Journal of Lending & Credit Risk Management, September 1998, pp. 39-43.

“Contagion and Bank Failures during the Great Depression: The Chicago Banking Panic of June 1932.” (with Charles Calomiris) Bank Structure and Competition Conference Proceedings. Chicago: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, May 1995, pp. 110-122.

WORKING PAPERS:

Financial History

“Resolving the Puzzle of the Underissuance of National Bank Notes.” (with Charles Calomiris). Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Working Paper #05-19. Previously NBER Working Paper 10951, December 2004. (Submitted to American Economic Review June 2005).

“Testing the Real Options Approach to Bank Liquidations during the 1930s,” (with Charles Calomiris).

“Bank Liquidation Cycles and Business Cycle Persistence, 1864-1940,” (with Scott Redenius).

“Commercial Bank Efficiency and Failures during the Great Depression,” (With Ali Anari and Jim Kolari).

Contemporary Financial Distress:

“Applying the Real Options Approach to Bankruptcy Costs to Nonfinancial Firm Bond Defaults,” (with Michael Pagano and Bob Cangemi).

Asset-Backed Securities

“Mortgage Loan Modification: Promises and Pitfalls,” SSRN Working Paper: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1027470 , October 2007.

“Where Did the Risk Go? How Misapplied Bond Ratings Cause Mortgage Backed Securities and Collateralized Debt Obligation Market Disruptions,” (with Joshua Rosner). SSRN Working Paper: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1027475, May 3, 2007.

“How Resilient Are Mortgage Backed Securities to Collateralized Debt Obligation Market Disruptions?” (with Joshua Rosner). SSRN Working Paper: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1027472, February 13, 2007.

“Deriving Credit Portfolio Correlation Properties from Large Asset-backed Security Pools,” (with Eric Higgins), Wharton Financial Institutions Center Working Paper #05-43.

Profit and Cost Efficiency

“Is Bank Efficiency Cyclical? The Relationship between Economic and Financial Market Conditions and Bank Performance.” (with Yi-Kai Chen and Eric Higgins) Drexel University Working Paper, January 2005.(Submitted to Journal of Financial Intermediation, January 2005).

“Economies of Scale in the Banking Industry: The Effects of Loan Specialization.” (with Yi-Kai Chen and Eric Higgins) Drexel University Working Paper, December 2004. (Submitted to Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, November 2004).

LINKS:

Libraries/Reference

American Bar Association Home Page
Common Errors in English
Developing a Thesis Statement
Library of Congress Online Catalog 
Penn Library-Lippincott Library Home Page 
Powell's Books - Used, New, and Out of Print

Weather

Unisys Main Weather Page (Lots of resources)
Unisys Surface Data Details (More extensive and educational)
Unisys WXP Weather Map (My favorite)
Weather Underground-Philadelphia (Forecasts)

Economics and Banking  

Bank for International Settlements (BIS)
CAPCO Risk Solutions
China Securities Regulatory Commission
European Central Bank (ECB) 
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
FFIEC Report Forms
FFIEC QIS4 Page
Federal Reserve System
Federal Reserve System Financial Services (Payment System Information)
Financial Services Agency (Japan) 
OECD (OECD publications and economic data)
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
Securities and Exchange Commission

American Bankers Association (ABA)
American Banker® Online
Bank Administration Institute (BAI) 
Bankruptcy Statistics from the American Bankruptcy Institute
Bond Market Association
Brookings Institution
Conference of State Bank Supervisors
Credit Card Industry (RamResearch)
Credit Card Management Web Site
Depository Trust Corp.
Dynamic Yield Curve - StockCharts.Com 
Economist Magazine   
Faulkner & Gray
Financial Engineering News
Fitch Investors Service
Inside Mortgage Finance (Inside ABS and MBS)
International Swaps and Derivatives Association 
Mortgage Bankers of America (MBAA)
National Bureau of Economic Research
Resources for Economists on the Internet
SSRN: Social Science Research Network
Stock Futures and Options Magazine
Two and One Dimensional Brownian Motion
World Bank Financial Videos
Yahoo! Finance  

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia - Payment Cards Center
Penn Library-Lippincott Library Home Page 
Penn Economics Workshops Page 
Wharton Finance Department
Wharton Financial Institutions Center
Wharton Research Data Services - Members Login 
Wharton White Macro Finance Seminar 
Wharton White Micro Finance Seminar 

Chronicle of Higher Education
Financial Management Association (FMA)
Job Openings for Economists (JOE's)
Social Science Research Network (SSRN)
Journal of Finance
Economic History Organizations

Other

SmarTraveler Philadelphia Map
USNO Master Time Clock
 

LeBow College of Business
32nd and Chestnut Streets
Philadelphia, PA 19104
(215) 895-2944 ph
(215) 895-2955 fx