Predoctoral Fellowship Opportunities
Predoctoral Research Fellowship: Open Projects
A Long-term Perspective on Immigration and Equality of Opportunity (Ran Abramitzky)
Project Description
Long-term Perspective on Immigration and Equality of Opportunity: The predoctoral research fellow will assist in various projects that bring data and a long-run perspective on immigration, education, and equality of opportunity in the US. The fellow will help assemble and harmonize datasets, perform econometric analysis, conduct deep historical research, and work on paper drafts. Professor Abramitzky’s most recent fellows helped put together the Census Linking Project and provided research assistance for research underlying the recent book, Streets of Gold. A strong interest in this research agenda, which can be found on his website is preferred.
Preferred Qualifications
The ideal candidate will have prior coding experience, solid quantitative and programming background, strong communication and interpersonal skills, ability to work independently to solve problems, and a long term interest in economic research.
Public Economics/Taxation; Immigration/Economic History (Ran Abramitzky and Rebecca Lester)
(This is a one year position with the possibility of renewal for a second year.)
Project Description
This posting is for a joint research position with Professor Ran Abramitzky (Stanford Econ) and Professor Rebecca Lester (Stanford GSB). This position will allow the predoctoral fellow to develop a broad set of skills — and have exposure to a broad set of topics — ranging from tax policy to immigration and economic history. The projects include a mix of both data work (data construction and empirical analysis) as well as project development (literature review, writing) and involve research at every stage of the research process.
Health Inequality Lab (Marcella Alsan)
(This is a one year position.)
Project Description
Marcella Alsan is a physician, economist, and Professor at Stanford whose research examines the causes and consequences of health inequality. Her work combines economic methods, clinical insight, and large-scale data to evaluate policies and interventions that improve health and reduce disparities. Predoctoral fellows work closely with Dr. Alsan and collaborators on research using electronic health records, administrative data, surveys, and randomized evaluations, with opportunities to contribute to study design, data analysis, and manuscript preparation.
History and Future of Economic Progress (Lukas Althoff)
Project Description
Our lab studies long-run economic change, with a focus on progress and inequality: how AI and earlier information technologies like the early internet reshape scientific discovery (see, e.g., anatomyofscience.com), and how historical institutions, from Jim Crow to the GI Bill, shape economic opportunity across generations. You will own major pieces of this work end to end: building datasets from historical archives and modern sources, writing analysis and causal-inference code, and turning results into papers and public research products. You will be treated as a junior colleague, with close mentorship, real intellectual ownership, and strong support for PhD applications. In return, you are expected to become the lab’s expert on the data and methods you own. Prior training in economics is not required.
Preferred Qualifications
- You can focus for long stretches and enjoy going deep. Our projects depend on people who develop genuine mastery of difficult datasets, methods, and literatures. We especially welcome mathematics and computer science majors.
- You are entrepreneurial and proactive. You keep track of all the moving parts of a research project, notice problems early, and attack them without waiting to be asked.
- You are curious about both technology and history, with AI and scientific progress on one side, institutions and inequality on the other.
- You are fluent with AI coding tools (e.g., Claude Code, Codex) for data analysis, software, and research websites. And you use them to sharpen your own understanding, not substitute for it.
- You communicate clearly, follow through reliably, and enjoy the unglamorous coordination work that keeps ambitious team projects moving.
Projects in International Trade, Economic Geography, and Climate Economics (Adrien Bilal and Benny Kleinman)
Project Description
Professors Adrien Bilal and Benny Kleinman are looking for two research assistants to work on a range of projects at the intersection of Macroeconomics, International Trade, Economic Geography and the Economics of Climate Change. Key research projects would include the dynamics of local economies, the impact of climate change, the spatial organization of firms, AI in the global economy, and spillovers between regions and countries. Projects typically involve working with and analyzing large-scale datasets and analyzing multi-region and multi-country quantitative models.
Preferred Qualifications
Strong quantitative and programming skills, with proficiency in statistical software such as Stata, R, Python, or Julia. Preference is given to applicants with a demonstrated interest in Macroeconomics, International Trade, Economic Geography and the Economics of Climate Change, as well as experience working with models and data from these fields.
AI, Uncertainty and Working from Home (Nicolas Bloom)
Project Description
The position will analyze three broad streams of research. One on the measurement and impact of AI on the US and global economy, working with survey data, job-posting data and other firm-level data. What is the impact of AI on productivity and employment, how has this evolved over time, and what are potential distributional impacts. Second, building on prior research measuring and evaluating the impact of uncertainty on the economy. Finally, developing analysis of the short and long run trends in working from home, its impacts on employees, firms and society.
Preferred Qualifications
The project will involve analysis of large datasets in Stata, which familiarity with would be an advantage.
AI impact on workers, jobs, and the economy (Erik Brynjolfsson)
Project Description
The successful candidate will join the team at the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, contributing to research that develops new economic measures of how artificial intelligence is affecting workers, jobs, and the economy. Working closely with researchers from diverse backgrounds, they will create datasets and tools, analyze data, develop findings, and communicate findings through clear writing and data visualizations.
Preferred Qualifications
- Expertise in Python and its data analysis packages
- Experience with Databricks, Bitbucket, or similar tools
- Excellent organizational skills and demonstrated ability to complete detailed work accurately under deadlines with general guidance
- Excellent oral, written, and analytical skills
Empirical Analysis of Credit and Healthcare Markets. (Jose Ignacio Cuesta)
Project Description
Professor Jose Ignacio Cuesta is working on a set of projects that analyze the design and regulation of credit and healthcare markets, including the role of screening technology in credit markets, the design of mortgage refinancing policies, the impacts of loan guarantee programs, the roles of public procurement and public provision in lowering drug prices, and the design of health insurance markets, among others. The projects use novel large datasets to develop a variety of analyses that range from exploiting policy variation to study the effects of the policy on market outcomes, implementing and analyzing field experiments, and estimating structural models of consumer and firm behavior to study the effects of counterfactual policies and measure welfare effects. The fellow will help the team collect, clean, process, and analyze the data. The fellow will be exposed to a variety of methods commonly used in applied microeconomics and obtain experience employing them in practice.
Preferred Qualifications
A strong quantitative background, coding experience, ability to work independently, and overall enthusiasm for research in economics.
Digital media and AI (Matthew Gentzkow)
Project Description
We are looking for highly skilled and motivated individuals to work on a suite of projects related to digital media and AI. Our lab focuses on the economics of media and technology industries and these industries’ impacts on society and democracy. Predocs will work on a range of projects on topics such as the impacts of phones, social media, and AI on youth, regulation of digital technologies by governments and schools, digital addiction, political polarization, and market power of large technology platforms. The work involves a wide range of tools and methodologies, including reduced-form and structural empirics, surveys and experiments, and intensive use of AI.
Preferred Qualifications
Strong background in computing and use of AI tools.
SIEPR Policy Impact (Neale Mahoney)
Project Description
Professor Mahoney is looking for research assistants to work with him on a broad portfolio of economic research and economic policy projects. This includes projects on U.S. healthcare, consumer finance, energy markets, housing, and childcare. Research assistants work on all aspects of projects from the generation of ideas, to cleaning and preparation of data, to quantitative analysis and structural estimation, to working with regulators to understand policy issues and develop possible solutions. The ideal candidate will have (i) strong quantitative and computer skills, including programming, (ii) strong communication and interpersonal skills, (iii) the ability to work independently to solve problems sometimes on tight timelines, and (iv) a long-term interest in economic policy and economic research. Background in economics is a plus, but not necessary–I welcome candidates with strong backgrounds who are looking for more exposure to economics.
Applied Microeconometrics (Neale Mahoney and Alessandra Voena)
Project Description
Professor Mahoney and Professor Voena are looking for research assistants to work on a broad portfolio of economic research projects. These include projects on U.S. healthcare, consumer finance, energy markets, housing, AI, and childcare. The research assistants will work on all aspects of projects from the generation of ideas to cleaning and preparation of data to quantitative analysis and structural estimation. The ideal candidate will have (i) strong quantitative and computer skills, including programming, (ii) strong communication and interpersonal skills, (iii) the ability to work independently to solve problems sometimes on tight timelines, and (iv) a long-term interest in economic policy and economic research. A background in economics is a plus, but not necessary–we welcome candidates with strong backgrounds who are looking for more exposure to economics.
Health Economics and Medicaid Data (Adrienne Sabety)
Project Description
Projects will cover a range of topics related to Social Determinants of Health. For instance, the predoc will interface between the research team, and a Bay Area based provider on a collaborative project studying the impact of cash transfers on housing stability, education, and health for individuals who were previously homeless. The predoc will also work with Medicaid claims data to study individuals with disabilities, in foster care, or in SSI. This position is ideal for individuals looking to be an equal thought partner on projects attempting to meaningfully improve individuals’ lives.
Preferred Qualifications
Coding experience with preference given to those with prior knowledge of Stata, R, or Python. Excitement to develop project management and data management skills is a must. Interests in the topics being studied is important, though prior work in these areas is not required.
The Transformation of Financial Intermediation (Amit Seru)
Project Description
Professor Seru is seeking a predoctoral research fellow to work on projects at the intersection of household finance, fintech and Big Tech, financial regulation, and the industrial organization of financial intermediation.
Current projects examine how new financial platforms, pricing models, and recommendation technologies shape household borrowing, saving, and payment decisions, and the implications for consumer welfare and distribution. Other projects study how changes in financial supervision and regulation, including competition policy, consumer protection, and capital and liquidity requirements, reallocate activity across banks, nonbanks, and technology platforms. A related set of projects examines how financial innovation changes the production and delivery of financial services, including pricing, matching, and pass through, and how these changes ultimately affect households and financial markets.
Research fellows will build and maintain large, linked datasets using administrative, proprietary, and text based sources. They will clean, merge, validate, and document data and conduct empirical analyses using methods including panel regressions, difference in differences and event studies, instrumental variables, and matching.
Fellows will develop Python based workflows for data processing, parsing, and natural language processing as needed, and use R or Stata for econometric analysis. They will also synthesize relevant academic literature, produce clear, publication quality tables and figures, draft concise research memos that connect empirical findings to economic mechanisms and policy implications, and maintain well documented and reproducible codebases.
Preferred Qualifications
The ideal candidate has strong programming skills in Python and SQL, with experience in natural language processing a plus, as well as proficiency in R or Stata. Candidates should be comfortable working with large and complex datasets and thinking carefully about identification and causal inference in observational settings. Strong analytical, organizational, and written communication skills are also important. This position is particularly well suited for candidates considering a future PhD in economics, finance, or a related field.