Pre-Doctoral Research Specialist

Job Description Summary

The Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research at the Wharton School is seeking a Predoctoral Research Specialist to support the research of Professors Sylvain Catherine, Lu Liu, and Huan Tang. Research projects will study topics in household finance, fintech, labor, and public finance.

This is a full-time, limited-term position for two years (July 1, 2026 - June 30, 2028). Annual salary is in the range of $57,000-61,000 plus benefits.

Job Responsibilities

• Manage data for faculty research projects, including collection, analysis, and interpretation.
• Develop and maintain moderately complex databases using STATA, Excel, SAS, and other software applications.
• Prepare supporting materials for faculty research papers, such as graphs, tables, data descriptions, and appendices.
• Contribute to other research activities such as writing research reports and literature reviews, conducting background research on recent policy developments, and preparing presentation materials.
• Other duties and responsibilities as assigned.

Preferred Qualifications

• BA/BS in Economics, Finance, Statistics, or a related discipline and 1 to 2 years of research experience.
• Research experience, including conducting independent research using statistical software such as STATA, Matlab, Python, Mathematica, or R.
• The ability to analyze data, derive proofs, and write reports.
• Self-directed, intrinsically motivated, and have the capacity to manage work independently.