Business Economics
From corporate finance, industrial organization, and international business, to markets, competition, and government regulation, HBS doctoral students in Business Economics delve into some of the most pressing and relevant topics in the field of economics through the practical lens of business.
Jointly administered by HBS and the Department of Economics in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the program combines theoretical analysis with in-depth, interdisciplinary research rooted in real-world applications.
Curriculum & Coursework
As a Business Economics PhD student, you will take courses alongside your peers in the Department of Economics, studying microeconomic theory, macroeconomic theory, probability and statistics, econometrics, and other specialized topics. In addition, your doctoral coursework and two MBA courses at HBS deepen your theoretical knowledge and harness it toward practical applications. Your coursework culminates in a written exam administered jointly by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) and HBS at the end of your second year on two special fields of study. In addition to coursework and research, doctoral students are required to complete one academic term of teaching.
Research Dissertation
HBS doctoral students are insatiably curious, and they use the tools and knowledge developed in the classroom to ask—and answer—pressing questions about the field of economics. After passing your field exams, you will work closely with faculty mentors to identify a line of inquiry that will guide your original research. In the course of your research, you will present, analyze, and evaluate unique data and reach relevant, independent conclusions that advance your field.
Areas of Specialization
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- Behavioral Economics
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- Development
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- Econometrics
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- Economic Theory
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- Economics of Organization
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- Entrepreneurship
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- Finance
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- Industrial Organization
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- International Economics
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- Labor Economics
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- Macroeconomics
Profiles
Ran Zhuo
Business Economics
Sagar Saxena
Business Economics
“HBS is the ideal environment because I get to think about the world like an economist, but I have the freedom and resources to draw on methods from other disciplines as I study market design and industrial organization.”
PhD Candidate, Business Economics
“HBS is the ideal environment because I get to think about the world like an economist, but I have the freedom and resources to draw on methods from other disciplines as I study market design and industrial organization.”
PhD Candidate, Business Economics
Current Harvard Economics Faculty
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- Isaiah Andrews
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- Pol Antràs
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- Robert Barro
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- Emily Breza
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- John Y. Campbell
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- Raj Chetty
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- Gabriel Chodorow-Reich
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- Richard Cooper
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- David M Cutler
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- Melissa Dell
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- Karen Dynan
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- Benjamin Enke
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- Richard B. Freeman
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- Benjamin M. Friedman
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- Roland G. Fryer, Jr.
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- Xavier Gabaix
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- Edward Glaeser
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- Claudia Goldin
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- Benjamin Golub
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- Isaiah Andrews
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- Pol Antràs
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- Robert Barro
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- Emily Breza
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- John Y. Campbell
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- Raj Chetty
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- Gabriel Chodorow-Reich
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- Richard Cooper
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- David M Cutler
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- Melissa Dell
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- Karen Dynan
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- Benjamin Enke
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- Richard B. Freeman
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- Benjamin M. Friedman
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- Roland G. Fryer, Jr.
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- Xavier Gabaix
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- Edward Glaeser
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- Claudia Goldin
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- Benjamin Golub
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- Gita Gopinath
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- Jerry Green
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- Oliver Hart
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- Elhanan Helpman
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- Nathaniel Hendren
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- Dale Jorgenson
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- Myrto Kalouptsidi
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- Maximilian Kasy
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- Lawrence Katz
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- Gabriel Kreindler
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- Michael Kremer
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- David Laibson
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- Robin S. Lee
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- Matteo Maggiori
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- N. Gregory Mankiw
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- Stephen Marglin
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- Eric S. Maskin
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- Marc Melitz
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- Jeffrey Miron
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- Nathan Nunn
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- Ariel Pakes
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- Amanda Pallais
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- Matthew Rabin
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- Gautam Rao
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- Kenneth Rogoff
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- Amartya Sen
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- Neil Shephard
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- Andrei Shleifer
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- Stefanie Stantcheva
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- Jeremy Stein
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- James Stock
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- Ludwig Straub
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- Tomasz Strzalecki
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- Lawrence H. Summers
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- Elie Tamer
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- Winnie Van Dijk
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- David Yang
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Current HBS Faculty
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- Laura Alfaro
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- Samuel B. Antill
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- Malcolm P. Baker
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- John Beshears
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- Katherine B. Coffman
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- Lauren H. Cohen
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- Shawn A. Cole
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- Joshua D. Coval
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- Mihir A. Desai
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- Marco Di Maggio
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- Mark L. Egan
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- Benjamin C. Esty
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- C. Fritz Foley
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- Stuart C. Gilson
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- Paul A. Gompers
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- Daniel W. Green
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- Jerry R. Green
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- Laura Alfaro
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- Samuel B. Antill
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- Malcolm P. Baker
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- John Beshears
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- Katherine B. Coffman
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- Lauren H. Cohen
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- Shawn A. Cole
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- Joshua D. Coval
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- Mihir A. Desai
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- Marco Di Maggio
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- Mark L. Egan
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- Benjamin C. Esty
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- C. Fritz Foley
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- Stuart C. Gilson
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- Paul A. Gompers
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- Daniel W. Green
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- Jerry R. Green
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- Shane M. Greenstein
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- Robin Greenwood
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- Brian J. Hall
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- Samuel G. Hanson
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- Victoria Ivashina
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- Robert S. Kaplan
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- William R. Kerr
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- Scott Duke Kominers
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- Jacqueline Ng Lane
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- Josh Lerner
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- Michael Luca
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- Alexander J. MacKay
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- Edward McFowland III
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- David A. Moss
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- Ramana Nanda
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- Matthew Rabin
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- Forest L. Reinhardt
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- Raffaella Sadun
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- William A. Sahlman
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- David S. Scharfstein
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- Joshua R. Schwartzstein
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- Arthur I Segel
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- Ishita Sen
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- Emil N. Siriwardane
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- Ariel D. Stern
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- Adi Sunderam
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- Jo Tango
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- Boris Vallee
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- Luis M. Viceira
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- Matthew C. Weinzierl
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- Dennis A. Yao
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Current Business Economics Students
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- Maxim Alekseev
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- Martin Aragoneses
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- Sage Belz
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- Michael Blank
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- Fiona Chen
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- Jorge Colmenares
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- John Conlon
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- Songyuan "Diane" Ding
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- Jo Ellery
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- Simon Essig Aberg
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- Toren Fronsdal
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- Jacob Furst
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- Jeffrey Gortmaker
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- Maxim Alekseev
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- Martin Aragoneses
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- Sage Belz
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- Michael Blank
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- Fiona Chen
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- Jorge Colmenares
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- John Conlon
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- Songyuan "Diane" Ding
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- Jo Ellery
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- Simon Essig Aberg
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- Toren Fronsdal
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- Jacob Furst
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- Jeffrey Gortmaker
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- Shlok Goyal
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- Helene Hall
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- Ruru (Juan Ru) Hoong
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- Justin Katz
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- Yong Wook (Spencer) Kwon
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- Shira Li
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- Angela Ma
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- Alex Magnuson
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- Fanele Mashwama
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- Marcela Mello
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- Laura Nicolae
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- Lauren Rice
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- Maya Roy
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- Dominic Russel
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- Kunal Sangani
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- Claire Shi
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- Wilbur Townsend
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- Jennifer Walsh
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- Andi Wang
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- Alex Wu
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- Hanbin Yang
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- Jeffrey Yang
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- Ran Zhuo
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- Jennifer Zou
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Current HBS Faculty & Students by Interest
Recent Placement
John Conlon, 2023
Stanford University, Department of Economics, Post-Doctoral Fellow (2023-2024), Carnegie
Mellon University, Department of Social and Decision Sciences, Assistant Professor
(2024)
Erica Moszkowski, 2023
Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Economist
Ran Zhuo, 2023
University of Michigan, Ross School of Business, Post-Doctoral Fellow (2023-2024);
Assistant Professor (2024)
Matthew Lilley, 2022
Australian National University
David Zhang, 2022
Rice University, Jones Graduate School of Business
Karen Shen, 2021
Research Improving People’s Lives (RIPL), Economist (2021-2022); Johns Hopkins University,
Bloomberg School of Public Health, Assistant Professor (2022)
Ravi Jagadeesan, 2020
Stanford University, Department of Economics, Postdoctoral Fellow (2020-2022); Assistant
Professor (2022-)
Christopher Anderson, 2019
Economist
Federal Reserve Board of Governors
Federal Reserve Board of Governors
Yizhou Jin, 2019
Postdoctoral Fellow
UC Berkeley, Economics Department & Haas School of Business, Post-doctoral Fellow (2019-2022); University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management and Economics Department (2022)
UC Berkeley, Economics Department & Haas School of Business, Post-doctoral Fellow (2019-2022); University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management and Economics Department (2022)
William Diamond, 2018
University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, Finance Department
Neil Thakral, 2018
Brown University, Economics Department
Spencer Yongwook Kwon, 2023
Brown University, Department of Economics
Daniel Ramos, 2023
John Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies
Francesca Bastianello, 2022
The University of Chicago, Booth School of Business
Frank Pinter, 2022
Economist
Federal Trade Commission
Federal Trade Commission
Andreas Schaab, 2021
Post-doctoral fellow (2021-2022)
Columbia University Business School, Post-doctoral fellow (2021-2022); Toulouse School of Economics, Assistant Professor (2022)
Columbia University Business School, Post-doctoral fellow (2021-2022); Toulouse School of Economics, Assistant Professor (2022)
Edoardo Maria Acabbi, 2020
University Carlos III of Madrid
Michael Thaler, 2020
Postdoctoral Fellow
Princeton University, Economics Department, Post-doctoral fellow (2020-2022); University College London, Assistant Professor (2022)
Princeton University, Economics Department, Post-doctoral fellow (2020-2022); University College London, Assistant Professor (2022)
Vitaly Bord, 2019
Harvard Business School, Postdoctoral fellow (2018-2019), Federal Reserve Board of
Governors, Economist (2019)
Weiling Liu, 2019
Northeastern University, Finance Department
Anastassia Fedyk, 2018
University of Berkeley, Haas School of Business, Finance Department
Robert Minton, 2023
Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Economist
Sagar Saxena, 2023
Yale University, Department of Economics, Post-doctoral Fellow (2023-2024); University
of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, Business Economics and Public Policy Department,
Assistant Professor (2024)
Talia B. Gillis, 2022
Columbia Law School, Associate Professor of Law
Ron Yang, 2022
Stanford University, Graduate School of Business, Postdoctoral Scholar
Gregor Schubert, 2021
University of California-Los Angeles, Anderson School of Management
Xiang Ding, 2020
Georgetown University, Walsh School of Foreign Service
Michael Thaler, 2020
Princeton University, Postdoctoral Fellow (2020-2022); University College London,
Assistant Professor (2022)
Oren Danieli, 2019
Tel-Aviv University, School of Economics
Janelle Schlossberger, 2019
Michael Hammer Postdoctoral Fellow
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Institute for Data, Systems and Society
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Institute for Data, Systems and Society
Yueran Ma, 2018
University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, Finance Department
John Conlon, 2023
Stanford University, Department of Economics, Post-Doctoral Fellow (2023-2024), Carnegie
Mellon University, Department of Social and Decision Sciences, Assistant Professor
(2024)
Spencer Yongwook Kwon, 2023
Brown University, Department of Economics
Robert Minton, 2023
Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Economist
Erica Moszkowski, 2023
Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Economist
Daniel Ramos, 2023
John Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies
Sagar Saxena, 2023
Yale University, Department of Economics, Post-doctoral Fellow (2023-2024); University
of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, Business Economics and Public Policy Department,
Assistant Professor (2024)
Ran Zhuo, 2023
University of Michigan, Ross School of Business, Post-Doctoral Fellow (2023-2024);
Assistant Professor (2024)
Francesca Bastianello, 2022
The University of Chicago, Booth School of Business
Talia B. Gillis, 2022
Columbia Law School, Associate Professor of Law
Matthew Lilley, 2022
Australian National University
Frank Pinter, 2022
Economist
Federal Trade Commission
Federal Trade Commission
Ron Yang, 2022
Stanford University, Graduate School of Business, Postdoctoral Scholar
David Zhang, 2022
Rice University, Jones Graduate School of Business
Andreas Schaab, 2021
Post-doctoral fellow (2021-2022)
Columbia University Business School, Post-doctoral fellow (2021-2022); Toulouse School of Economics, Assistant Professor (2022)
Columbia University Business School, Post-doctoral fellow (2021-2022); Toulouse School of Economics, Assistant Professor (2022)
Gregor Schubert, 2021
University of California-Los Angeles, Anderson School of Management
Karen Shen, 2021
Research Improving People’s Lives (RIPL), Economist (2021-2022); Johns Hopkins University,
Bloomberg School of Public Health, Assistant Professor (2022)
Edoardo Maria Acabbi, 2020
University Carlos III of Madrid
Xiang Ding, 2020
Georgetown University, Walsh School of Foreign Service
Ravi Jagadeesan, 2020
Stanford University, Department of Economics, Postdoctoral Fellow (2020-2022); Assistant
Professor (2022-)
Michael Thaler, 2020
Postdoctoral Fellow
Princeton University, Economics Department, Post-doctoral fellow (2020-2022); University College London, Assistant Professor (2022)
Princeton University, Economics Department, Post-doctoral fellow (2020-2022); University College London, Assistant Professor (2022)
Michael Thaler, 2020
Princeton University, Postdoctoral Fellow (2020-2022); University College London,
Assistant Professor (2022)
Christopher Anderson, 2019
Economist
Federal Reserve Board of Governors
Federal Reserve Board of Governors
Vitaly Bord, 2019
Harvard Business School, Postdoctoral fellow (2018-2019), Federal Reserve Board of
Governors, Economist (2019)
Oren Danieli, 2019
Tel-Aviv University, School of Economics
Yizhou Jin, 2019
Postdoctoral Fellow
UC Berkeley, Economics Department & Haas School of Business, Post-doctoral Fellow (2019-2022); University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management and Economics Department (2022)
UC Berkeley, Economics Department & Haas School of Business, Post-doctoral Fellow (2019-2022); University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management and Economics Department (2022)
Weiling Liu, 2019
Northeastern University, Finance Department
Janelle Schlossberger, 2019
Michael Hammer Postdoctoral Fellow
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Institute for Data, Systems and Society
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Institute for Data, Systems and Society
William Diamond, 2018
University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, Finance Department
Anastassia Fedyk, 2018
University of Berkeley, Haas School of Business, Finance Department
Yueran Ma, 2018
University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, Finance Department
Neil Thakral, 2018
Brown University, Economics Department