Joshua T. White

About

Joshua T. White became Chief Economist and Director of the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA) at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January 2026. He is also an Associate Professor of the Practice of Finance at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management and a Research Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI).

Academic Appointments

Professor White was an Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business from 2014 to 2017 and an Assistant Professor of Finance at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management from 2017 to 2026, where he was the Brownlee O. Currey Jr. Dean’s Faculty Fellow from 2021 to 2025. He now serves as Associate Professor of the Practice of Finance at Vanderbilt.

Public Service

From April 2025 to January 2026, Dr. White served as the Acting Chief Economist and Director of the PCAOB’s Office of Economic and Risk Analysis (OERA). He was a Senior Advisor of Economic Analysis in OERA from June 2024 to April 2025.

Earlier in his career, he was a Financial Economist, Visiting Academic Scholar, and Expert Consultant for the SEC between 2012 and 2018, where he worked in DERA conducting cost-benefit analyses of SEC rulemaking under the Dodd-Frank Act and JOBS Act for the Office of Corporate Finance, and analyzing market manipulation for the Office of Risk Assessment. He wrote two SEC White Papers that contributed to new rulemaking and won an SEC Director’s Award for his work.

Professor White has testified before the U.S. Congress multiple times on corporate governance and the economic impacts of SEC disclosure regulations. Additionally, he coauthored an economic analysis cited by the U.S. Court of Appeals in its decision overturning an SEC rule on stock buybacks in 2023.

Research

His academic research interests include corporate governance, disclosure, securities regulation, and blockchain. He has contributed corporate finance and corporate governance research to leading academic journals such as the Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Accounting and Economics, The Accounting Review, Review of Finance, and Review of Corporate Finance Studies. He has also published work on economic analyses accompanying securities regulation in law reviews and has written policy white papers for numerous organizations such as the SEC, PCAOB, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which have influenced numerous SEC rulemakings.

Media & Engagement

Professor White has been quoted extensively in the media, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg, Reuters, and Washington Post, and has been interviewed live on TV and radio by outlets such as CNBC, Fox Business, NPR, and Bloomberg. He has contributed several blog posts to the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and has organized and hosted symposia on cryptocurrency, digital assets, and related regulation efforts.

Teaching & Recognition

Professor White is an award-winning teacher of corporate governance and corporate finance in Vanderbilt’s MBA, MSF, MAcc, EMBA, and MMHC programs. Recent recognitions include the Journal of Accounting and Economics (JAE) Conference Best Discussant Award (2025), Contemporary Accounting Research’s Outstanding Reviewer Award (2025), and Vanderbilt’s James A. Webb Award for Teaching Excellence (2023).

Education

He holds a BS, MBA, and PhD in finance from the University of Tennessee’s Haslam College of Business, where he received the College’s Top Graduate Award and the University’s Top Collegiate Scholar award in 2007. He was named the Haslam College of Business Outstanding PhD Alumnus in 2018.