AP

Bad investment decisions, a lack of regulation, major shocks to the economy and historically low interest rates were primary causes of the 2008 financial crisis, according to a paper co-authored by David Brat that was presented at a conference in 2009.

Mr. Brat, the Virginia Republican who defeated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) on Tuesday, is an economics professor at Randolph Macon College in Ashland, Va. As others have noted, much of his writings wed studies of market economics with Christianity and Protestant ethics.

But in a paper he wrote in the summer of 2008 with a colleague, Sydney Jones, Mr. Brat takes a stab at explaining what caused the financial crisis and what it might do to long-term economic growth.