Joshua Pierce

Josh Pierce, Ph.D., is a faculty member of the Finance Department in the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. He has been involved with Executive Education programs for more than twelve years where he teaches both custom and open enrollment courses. Pierce has also taught many MBA, PMBA, and BBA courses. He has regularly been the recipient of numerous teaching nominations and awards from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and the Gatton College of Business at the University of Kentucky. He was most recently awarded the Beta Gamma Sigma Outstanding MBA Teacher of the Year. Pierce earned his Ph.D. in Finance from Michigan State University.

Pierce has published articles on topics such as bank lending, financial constraints, optimal capital structure, and CEO turnover. His research has appeared in such journals as the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Business, the Journal of Corporate Finance, the Review of Corporate Finance Studies, and Financial Management. In 2011, Pierce’s paper titled “New Evidence on Measuring Financial Constraints: Moving Beyond the KZ Index”, won the BlackRock Michael Brennan award for the best paper published in the Review of Financial Studies. In 2014, Pierce’s paper titled “Managers With and Without Style: Evidence using Exogenous Variation”, won the Research Affiliates Michael Brennan award for the best paper published in the Review of Financial Studies. The Review of Financial Studies (RFS) is sponsored by the Society of Financial Studies and is widely considered to be one of the top three academic journals in the field of finance.

Pierce has industry experience as a financial engineer, and as a computer programmer. Additionally, he has advised and consulted with employees at numerous firms over multiple industries.