Empirical Research Fellow

Applicants may request a reasonable accommodation by contacting the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX Compliance at 847-467-6165 or via email at ocr@northwestern.edu.

The Kellogg Finance Department is looking for highly skilled and motivated individuals to work as full-time Empirical Research Associates for a period of at least one year. We will review applications on a rolling basis, with a target initial review on October 15, 2026. (We will also continue reviewing applications received after that date until the positions are filled.) The position entails close collaboration on a number of finance projects with specific members of the department. Specifically, we are recruiting in the following areas (listed in alphabetical order by faculty sponsor); details are included in the attached pages for each position. Please indicate by checking boxes on the accompanying form the area(s) you are most interested in. For more information on the types of research projects you would be working on, please visit the faculty members’ websites. 1. Macroeconomics and Finance. Faculty sponsor: Sage Belz. 2. Empirical Corporate and Business History. Faculty sponsor: Carola Frydman. 3. Finance and Development (2 positions). Faculty sponsors: Sean Higgins, Dean Karlan, Jacopo Ponticelli. 4. Payments and Finance. Faculty sponsors: Sean Higgins and Lulu Wang. 5. Labor and Finance; Data, Payments, and Competition in Financial Intermediation. Faculty sponsors: Maddalena Ronchi, Lulu Wang. 6. Empirical Corporate/Household Finance, Innovation, Labor Economics, and Financial Intermediation. Faculty sponsors: David Matsa, Gregor Matvos. 7. Macro-Finance, Technology, and Labor. Faculty sponsors: Dmitris Papanikolaou, Bryan Seegmiller. 8. Empirical Research Generalist (2 positions). Faculty sponsor: Varies by project. Research duties vary, but may include: - Performing statistical analyses on large databases utilizing R, Python, Stata, MATLAB, or other programming languages. - Scraping data from websites and non-traditional data sources. - Utilizing OCR tools, data parsing, AI, and text analysis to create novel datasets (e.g., based on historical records). - Designing and running experiments. - Implementing Python-based machine learning and natural language processing tools to create economic measures from textual data - Economic modeling (including solving models by hand or programming dynamic models) - Conducting literature reviews. - Writing up results for presentations and publications. - Actively participating in project meetings and discussions with existing research teams. Previous holders of this position have participated in graduate courses at Northwestern during their time as research fellows (including macroeconomics, microeconomics, asset pricing, and real analysis) and gone on to top Ph.D. programs in economics and finance including Chicago, Princeton, Kellogg, MIT, NYU, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and Yale. The ideal candidate will have a strong quantitative background and programming skills, and the ability to work independently. Prior background in economics or finance is useful but not necessary; we welcome candidates with strong technical backgrounds who are looking for more exposure in these fields. This opportunity is ideal for candidates looking to develop their empirical and theoretical skills in preparation for pursuing a graduate program in economics or finance. Please attach the following to your application: 1. The form indicating which position(s) you are interested in applying to. 2. A cover letter briefly describing your career or academic goals, your experience as research assistant or other experience with economic research (e.g., senior thesis), and a description of your programming background; 3. A current CV; 4. Complete undergraduate and graduate transcripts (unofficial is fine). The starting date is negotiable, but we are targeting a start date of July 1, 2027. Salary Compensation is $25.55 per hour, and we provide standard benefits such as health insurance. Note for international applicants: Kellogg will provide the research fellow with the necessary J-1 Research Scholar visa, subject to USCIS rules and regulations. To apply, please visit: https://kellogg.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_79Gg6xsOP3fAWY6 Northwestern University is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected characteristics, including disability and veteran status. View Northwestern’s non-discrimination statement. Job applicants who wish to request an accommodation in the application or hiring process should contact the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX Compliance. View additional information on the accommodations process."

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Self Identification - Veteran Status

Definitions

This employer is a Government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974, as amended by the Jobs for Veterans Act of 2002, 38 U.S.C. 4212 (VEVRAA), which requires Government contractors to take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment: (1) disabled veterans; (2) recently separated veterans; (3) active duty wartime or campaign badge veterans; and (4) Armed Forces service medal veterans. These classifications are defined as follows:

  • A "disabled veteran" is one of the following:
  • A veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or
  • A person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service connected disability.
  • A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.
  • An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.
  • An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.
Protected veterans may have additional rights under USERRA — the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. In particular, if you were absent from employment in order to perform service in the uniformed service, you may be entitled to be reemployed by your employer in the position you would have obtained with reasonable certainty if not for the absence due to service. For more information, call the U.S. Department of Labor's Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS), toll-free, at 1-866-4-USA-DOL.

Self-Identification

If you believe you belong to any of the classifications of protected veterans listed above, please indicate by selecting the appropriate option below. As a Government contractor subject to VEVRAA, we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA.










Reasonable Accommodation Notice

If you are a disabled veteran it would assist us if you tell us whether there are accommodations we could make that would enable you to perform the essential functions of the job, including special equipment, changes in the physical layout of the job, changes in the way the job is customarily performed, provision of personal assistance services or other accommodations. This information will assist us in making reasonable accommodations for your disability. Applicants and employees may request a reasonable accommodation by contacting Northwestern's Office of Civil Rights and Title IX Compliance at 847-467-6165 or via email at ocr@northwestern.edu.

Submission of this information is voluntary and refusal to provide it will not subject you to any adverse treatment. The information provided will be used only in ways that are not inconsistent with the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974, as amended.

The information you submit will be kept confidential, except that (i) supervisors and managers may be informed regarding restrictions on the work or duties of disabled veterans, and regarding necessary accommodations; (ii) first aid and safety personnel may be informed, when and to the extent appropriate, if you have a condition that might require emergency treatment; and (iii) Government officials engaged in enforcing laws administered by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, or enforcing the Americans with Disabilities Act, may be informed.

 

Self Identification - Diversity

Gender/Ethnicity/Race

Northwestern University is subject to certain governmental record-keeping and reporting requirements for the administration of civil rights laws and regulations. To comply with these laws, Northwestern University invites applicants to voluntarily self-identify race/ethnicity, gender, and veteran status. Submission of this information is voluntary, and refusal to provide it will not subject you to any adverse treatment. The information is kept confidential and is only used in accordance with the provisions of applicable laws, executive orders and regulations, including those that require the information to be summarized and reported to the federal government for civil rights enforcement. When reported, data will not identify any specific individual.

If you do not wish to provide this information, please check the box to the left of 'I don't wish to answer.'

Gender Identification Ethnicity Identification Race Identification



Are you Hispanic or Latino/a?

A person of Cuban, Mexican, Chicano/a, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.
What is your race?

    A person having origins in any of the original people of North and South America (including Central America), and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment.

    A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia or the Indian Subcontinent, including for example, Cambodia, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, Viet Nam.

    A person having origins in any of the black racial groups in Africa.

    A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.

    A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.
    Questions?
    Contact Finance Fellows Recruiting at finrecruiting@kellogg.northwestern.edu