Dr. Mehdi Rasteh is an Assistant Professor of Finance at King’s University College at Western University, where he has been a faculty member since July 2025. He earned his PhD in Finance from Concordia University and previously held a Visiting Researcher position at MIT.
His research lies at the intersection of corporate finance, banking, real estate finance, and sustainable finance, with a unifying focus on how economic and environmental shocks are transmitted through real assets, firms, and financial institutions. His work also examines how financing relationships, access to liquidity, and available collateral help businesses and banks withstand such shocks. Building on this research agenda, Dr. Rasteh was awarded an Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to investigate whether environmental claims made by Canadian real estate investment trusts are supported by the measurable environmental performance of their properties, with particular attention to greenwashing, institutional ownership, and pension fund stewardship.
At King’s, Dr. Rasteh teaches advanced corporate finance, corporate valuation, and introductory financial management. Before joining the faculty, he taught finance and real estate at Concordia University as an adjunct professor.
Honours and Research Funding
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Insight Development Grant, Principal Investigator, 2026
- King’s University College Internal Research Grant, 2025
- Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture (FRQSC) research funding, 2021–2023
- PhD Dissertation Grant, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association (AREUEA), 2022
- Concordia University Accelerator Award, 2022
Education
- PhD in Business Administration - Finance, Concordia University, 2024
- Master of Business Administration - Finance, Bogazici University, 2016
Selected Publications
- Özsoy, S. Mehmet, Mehdi Rasteh, and Erkan Yönder (2025). “Understanding Drought Shocks: Bank Financial Stability and Loan Performance.” Global Finance Journal, 65, 101100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfj.2025.101100
- Demirci, Irem, Mehdi Rasteh, and Erkan Yönder (2023). “Unpledged Collateral, REIT Liquidity Constraints, and Asset Sales.” The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 70(3), 515–542. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11146-023-09950-3