Predoctoral Research Associate in Finance; Summer , Division of Research and Faculty Development

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Harvard Business School (HBS) is seeking multiple Predoctoral Research Associates starting in summer 2027 to support faculty research in the Finance unit. Associates will typically work with two faculty members, with some working with up to three.

Participating faculty include Professors Sam Antill, Shawn Cole, Mark Egan, Paul Gompers,Robin Greenwood,Sebastian Hillenbrand,Elisabeth Kempf, Max Miller, Ishita Sen, Erik Stafford, Adi Sunderam and Philippe van der Beck. Research associates and faculty members will be matched based on mutual research interests. Professors Adi Sunderam and Mark Egan will serve as faculty mentors for the cohort.

Research projects may include, but are not limited to, financial markets, asset pricing, empirical corporate finance, banking and financial institutions, household and corporate finance, financial technology, macro-finance, and the application of financial concepts, data, and frameworks to questions in business and economics.

The multi-faculty research model is designed for researchers to support multiple faculty members across a portfolio of academic research projects rather than working exclusively with one faculty member.

Researchers will see the full research process, gain exposure to several faculty projects, and receive mentorship in preparation for future studies. This opportunity is particularly well suited to candidates who hope to pursue a PhD in finance or economics. Please describe your interest in the multi-faculty Finance model and any relevant faculty or research areas in your cover letter.

More information on career outcomes, including PhD programs recent Predoctoral Research Associates attended, can be seen here: https://(Use the "Apply for this Job" box below)..

Overview:
The Predoctoral Research Associate position reports directly to the primary faculty mentors and other Finance faculty participating in the cohort, with administrative support from the Research Staff Services office. The multi-faculty model provides opportunities to contribute to multiple projects, collaborate with different faculty members and research teams, and develop a broad understanding of the research process. Ideal candidates will be comfortable in an environment that requires a high level of independence, intellectual curiosity, flexibility, and the ability to use discretionary judgment.

Primary duties:

• Work under the general direction of participating Finance faculty on academic research projects across financial markets, financial concepts, financial data, and financial frameworks.
• Support multiple faculty members and projects, adapting to different research questions, methods, timelines, and working styles while maintaining high-quality and organized project workflows.
• Contribute to the full research process, including developing research questions, reviewing academic literature, collecting and assembling data, designing empirical analyses, interpreting results, and preparing findings for faculty review.
• Develop, design, conduct, analyze, and implement research using data science knowledge and prior knowledge of requested statistical packages. Perform statistical programming and, where relevant, use natural language processing or other computational methods.
• Manage and manipulate financial and economic data using requested packages, such as STATA, Python, R, or MATLAB. Document data sources, code, workflows, and…