Job Description Summary

The Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research at the Wharton School is seeking a pre-doctoral Research Associate to support research on household finance, corporate finance and public economics for a period of up to two years. The Research Associate will work closely with Finance Department Professors Sylvain Catherine and Lu Liu.
Job Description

The Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research at the Wharton School is seeking a pre-doctoral Research Associate to support research on household finance, corporate finance and public economics for a period of up to two years. The Research Associate will work closely with Finance Department Professors Sylvain Catherine and Lu Liu.

Job responsibilities include conducting empirical analysis; cleaning, visualizing and analyzing data using programs such as Stata/Matlab/Python/R; and conducting background research, writing summaries and research reports. The Research Associate will support research on projects across a range of topics such as: household financial decisions over the life cycle, wealth and income inequality, housing and mortgage markets, demographic change, labor market decisions and mobility, asset prices and financial intermediation; using micro-data as well as structural methods.

A successful pre-doctoral fellow will work in this position for 1-2 years, possess a strong desire to expand and deepen skills in economic research and quantitative data analysis, and emerge prepared to apply for PhD programs in Economics, Finance and Public Policy. Research Associates will be encouraged to be an active part of the Wharton research community, which can include attending seminars, exploring personal research interests, and taking graduate-level classes at Wharton. Professors Catherine and Liu will provide supervision and mentorship on academic development. The Research Associate will join a cohort of pre-doctoral Research Associates both in the Finance Department and across other departments at the Wharton School.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

BA/BS and 1-2 years of experience or equivalent combination of education and experience.
Proficiency in at least one major statistical software such as Stata, R, Python
Coursework in either statistics, data analysis, or econometrics
A passionate mindset about economic research and quantitative data analysis, anticipating applying for an economics or finance PhD
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

BA/BS in Economics, Finance, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related discipline
Previous experience as a research assistant or conducting independent research using statistical software such as R or Stata
Ability to code in Matlab or Python
Ability to analyze data
Strong written and verbal communication skills
Self-directed, intrinsically motivated, and able to work independently to solve problems