Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Wealth and Income Inequality

Deadline to apply: December 4, 2025, at 5 pm EST Description

Description   

The NBER is accepting applications for a one-year post-doctoral fellowship. This fellowship will enable up to two outstanding early-career economists to visit the NBER’s Cambridge office for one year of intensive research studying disparities in wealth and income, the intergenerational transmission of inequality, the effect of public policies and economic shocks on disparities, and related issues.

Applications from researchers who are just completing their PhD, as well as from junior faculty members who may be able to combine this fellowship with an early career leave, are welcome.

Fellows will be selected based on the panel’s assessment of their potential to make an important contribution to the understanding of wealth and income inequality. 

Compensation

Each fellowship will provide a 12-month stipend of $100,000, reimbursement for health insurance, a travel and research allowance, and an office at the NBER. 

Eligibility

  • Just completing PhDs or junior faculty members who can combine this fellowship with an early career leave.
  • Expected to spend a year visiting the NBER’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
  • Applicants must have completed their PhD by June 2026.
  • Fellowship-related activities are expected to represent the fellow’s primary responsibility during the year.

  • By June 15, 2027, fellows must provide the selection committee with a copy of at least one research paper on long-term fiscal policy that is the result of the research during the fellowship year. 

Application Deadline 

5:00 pm EST on Thursday, December 4, 2025. Will be notified in January 2026, for the 2026–27 academic year.

Link to Apply 

Application Requirements

  • Curriculum vitae.
  • Research proposal not to exceed three pages double-spaced, and no more than two additional pages of tables, references, and graphs, describing the proposed research for the fellowship year.
  • One recommendation letter (preferably from a dissertation supervisor or other researcher familiar with their work). 

Selection Committee

Wojciech Kopczuk (Columbia), Hilary Hoynes (UC, Berkeley), and Eric Zwick (Chicago)

Funder

James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Foundation

Contact 

Abbie Murrell murrella@nber.org