The Stanford Graduate School of Business (Stanford GSB) Research Fellows Program is inviting applications for its Dedicated Research Fellow Track, providing aspiring researchers with the opportunity to work directly with Stanford faculty on advanced research projects across accounting, economics, finance, and organizational behavior.

The program is particularly relevant for candidates interested in academic research, economics, finance, accounting, data analysis, public policy, quantitative social science, computational research, and future PhD study.

The application for the Research Fellows Program opens on Thursday, September 3, 2026. Applicants interested in the Dedicated Track can explore the available projects and select up to three projects of interest as part of their application.

About the Stanford GSB Research Fellows Program

The Stanford Graduate School of Business Research Fellows Program provides opportunities for researchers to gain practical experience working on faculty-led research at Stanford.

The Dedicated Research Fellow Track allows fellows to work more closely with a particular faculty member or research project. The projects are organized according to their primary field, although Stanford notes that many projects are multidisciplinary.

The currently listed fields include:

• Accounting
• Economic Analysis & Policy
• Finance
• Organizational Behavior

Applicants are encouraged to explore projects outside their primary field where appropriate, particularly because several projects combine concepts and methods from multiple academic disciplines.

What Is the Dedicated Research Fellow Track?

The Dedicated Track is designed for applicants who want to work intensively on a specific research area.

When applying, candidates can:

1. Select the Dedicated Research Fellow Track.
2. Review the available research projects.
3. Choose up to three projects of interest.
4. Indicate their research interests and relevant skills.
5. Potentially work directly with Stanford faculty, PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and other members of the research community.

The projects have different requirements. Some emphasize economics and econometrics, while others involve programming, data management, experiments, literature reviews, financial research, or computational modeling.

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Available Dedicated Research Fellow Projects

1. Stanford Tax Lab (STAX): Accounting

Faculty: Rebecca Lester

Field: Accounting

Status: Open

Rebecca Lester, Associate Professor of Accounting at Stanford Graduate School of Business, is seeking predoctoral research fellows to conduct accounting research through the Stanford Tax Lab (STAX).

Fellows will work directly with Professor Lester in a collaborative research environment involving postdoctoral researchers and PhD students in accounting and economics.

The Stanford Tax Lab examines a broad range of taxation issues at international, federal, state, and local levels.

Potential Research Topics

Research may cover:

• Complex multinational corporate structures
• International taxation
• Cross-border income shifting
• Tax competition between countries
• State and local tax policy in the United States
• R&D tax incentives
• Innovation and economic growth
• The emerging fiscal impacts of artificial intelligence adoption
• How firms respond to tax-policy changes
• How governments respond to taxation policies across jurisdictions

The project is therefore relevant to applicants interested in taxation, accounting, economics, public policy, business behavior, innovation, and technology.

Research Activities and Tools

The fellow’s work may involve:

• Detailed empirical analysis
• Literature reviews
• Theoretical modeling
• Analysis of tax policies
• Examination of firm behavior
• Data analysis
• Stata
• Claude Code
• GitHub

Requirements

A background in public economics or accounting is not required, although it would be helpful.

The project particularly seeks candidates who are curious about how fiscal policy shapes firm behavior.

This means candidates without a traditional accounting background may still be considered if they demonstrate strong research interest and relevant analytical abilities.

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2. Stanford Tax Lab (STAX): Economics

Faculty: Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato

Field: Economic Analysis & Policy

Status: Open

Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato, the Edward B. Rust Professor of Economics, is seeking predoctoral research fellows to conduct economics research through the Stanford Tax Lab.

The fellow will work in a collaborative environment involving postdoctoral researchers and PhD students in economics and accounting.

The research examines taxation at international, federal, and local levels and explores how tax policies influence businesses, workers, governments, and economic activity.

Potential Research Topics

Possible areas of research include:

• Complex multinational corporate structures
• International tax policy
• Environmental regulations
• The economic impact of environmental regulations
• R&D tax incentives
• Administration of fiscal policy in developing countries
• Labor-market effects of business taxes
• Business incentives
• Economic consequences of government policy

The project could be especially relevant to applicants interested in public economics, development economics, labor economics, taxation, international economics, and public policy.

Data and Research Methods

The work may involve:

• Empirical economic research
• Literature reviews
• Structural modeling
• Analysis of large administrative datasets
• Economic policy analysis
• Quantitative research

Some projects could involve large administrative datasets from the U.S. Census and Internal Revenue Service.

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3. Empirical Market Design for Transforming Marketplaces

Faculty: Shoshana Vasserman

Field: Economic Analysis & Policy

Status: Open

Shoshana Vasserman, Associate Professor of Economics, is seeking a predoctoral research fellow to contribute to ongoing research examining the empirical evaluation and design of policies that transform marketplaces.

Technology is changing how traditional markets operate, while also providing market designers with new tools for improving market outcomes.

The research explores how these changes can be understood and addressed using empirical and computational methods.

Possible Research Topics

Projects may include research on:

• Congestion pricing for road use
• Supply and demand frictions
• Homeowners’ insurance
• Natural-disaster risk
• Technology and changing marketplaces
• Policy design
• Market efficiency

Expected Research Activities

The fellow may contribute to several areas of empirical research, including:

1. Data management
2. Data cleaning and munging
3. Data visualization
4. Simulation
5. Basic econometrics
6. Empirical policy evaluation

Depending on the fellow’s interests, there may also be opportunities to learn and apply more advanced computational techniques and economic theory.

This project could be particularly suitable for applicants interested in economics, data science, policy analysis, market design, technology, and quantitative research.

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4. Global Capital Allocation Project

Faculty: Matteo Maggiori

Field: Finance

Status: Open

Matteo Maggiori, the Moghadam Family Professor and Professor of Finance, is seeking a predoctoral research fellow to join the Global Capital Allocation Project (GCAP) Lab.

The GCAP combines data, economic theory, and analytics to understand how capital moves around the world and how international financial activity affects economic policy.

Current Research Areas

Current projects include:

• Mapping how global firms finance themselves through foreign subsidiaries
• Understanding capital allocation and financial integration in the Eurozone
• Examining China’s growing presence in global financial markets
• Studying the relationship between geopolitics and economic statecraft
• Analyzing international capital flows
• Understanding global financial integration
• Studying international macroeconomic and financial issues

The research has potential implications for international economic policy and may attract media attention.

Research Environment

The position provides opportunities to collaborate with:

• Stanford faculty
• PhD students
• Fellow researchers

The fellow may also have opportunities to:

• Present research findings
• Gain advanced research training
• Work with large datasets
• Apply quantitative methods
• Contribute to research with international policy implications

Requirements

Applications are welcomed from candidates with:

• A strong quantitative background
• Excellent programming skills
• A passion for economic research

Importantly, prior economics experience is not required.

This makes the project potentially attractive to candidates from quantitative disciplines who want to transition into economics and international finance research.

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5. Dedicated Research Fellow Position in Finance

Faculty: Vikrant Vig

Field: Finance

Status: Open

Vikrant Vig, the William R. Timken Professor and Professor of Finance at Stanford Graduate School of Business and a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), is seeking a predoctoral research fellow.

The research focuses on asset quality, pricing, and reallocation over the business cycle.

Current Research Areas

Current work includes:

• Asset quality
• Asset pricing
• Asset reallocation
• Business-cycle research
• Recession-period quality loss
• Transaction-level data
• Effective-age estimation
• Recession-period price discounts
• Industry distress
• Financial regulation

One current research project uses transaction-level post-sale flying-hour measures to study quality loss and asset reallocation during recessions.

Another project develops Delta-method standard errors for effective-age estimation.

The research also examines recession-period price discounts using alternative recession definitions and continuous measures of industry distress.

Fellow Responsibilities

The fellow will assist with:

• Construction of transaction-level datasets
• Analysis of transaction-level data
• Empirical research
• Econometric analysis
• Financial research
• Research related to financial regulation
• Other related research projects

This position may be particularly suitable for candidates interested in finance, econometrics, financial markets, asset pricing, empirical research, and financial regulation.

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6. Models and Empirical Studies in Cultural Evolution

Faculty: Helena Miton

Field: Organizational Behavior

Status: Open

Helena Miton, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior, is seeking a predoctoral research fellow to work on research examining cultural evolution.

In this research context, cultural evolution refers to how information changes as it is transmitted from one person to another and across generations.

The project combines organizational behavior with experimental research, statistics, data analysis, and computational modeling.

Potential Research Activities

Depending on the fellow’s interests, activities may include:

• Re-analyzing published experiments
• Designing new experiments
• Running experiments
• Collecting research data
• Building computational models
• Extending existing computational models
• Comparing model predictions with real-world cases
• Collecting and cleaning large datasets
• Conducting statistical analyses
• Synthesizing academic literature
• Producing clear figures and tables
• Writing reproducible code
• Testing research code

Requirements

Applicants are expected to have some background in:

• Statistics
• Data analysis
• R
• Python

Prior exposure to mathematical or computational modeling is considered a plus but is not required.

The project could therefore be particularly relevant to candidates with backgrounds in statistics, data science, psychology, organizational behavior, computational social science, or related fields.

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Fields Without Current Dedicated Positions

Stanford GSB states that dedicated positions are not currently being offered in:

• Marketing
• Operations, Information & Technology (OIT)
• Political Economy

However, Stanford notes that additional projects may be added as they become available.

Applicants interested in these areas should continue checking the program for future updates.

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Stanford Research Fellows Standard Track

Applicants who do not find a suitable Dedicated Track project can consider the Standard Track.

The Standard Track follows a rotational model, allowing fellows to rotate between projects with different faculty members each quarter.

Rotations depend on:

• Project availability
• Applicant interests
• Available faculty research opportunities

The Standard Track may be particularly useful for candidates who want to gain exposure to multiple areas before specializing in a particular field.

It can also be an alternative for applicants whose preferred research field does not currently have an available Dedicated Track position.

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Who Should Consider Applying?

The Stanford GSB Research Fellows Program may be suitable for candidates interested in:

• Academic research
• Economics
• Accounting
• Finance
• Organizational behavior
• Public policy
• Data analysis
• Econometrics
• Quantitative social science
• Computational social science
• International economics
• Taxation
• Financial regulation
• Market design
• Business research
• Experimental research
• Computational modeling

Because each research project has its own requirements, applicants should evaluate the individual project descriptions carefully.

For example, candidates with strong programming and quantitative skills may be particularly interested in the Global Capital Allocation Project.

Applicants with statistics and R or Python experience may find the Cultural Evolution project relevant.

Candidates interested in taxation and public policy may consider either of the Stanford Tax Lab projects.

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How to Apply

Applicants interested in the Dedicated Research Fellow Track should take the following steps.

Step 1: Explore the Projects

Review all available projects rather than looking only at the field that matches your degree.

Many of the projects are multidisciplinary.

Step 2: Identify Your Research Interests

Consider the research questions that genuinely interest you and identify the projects that align most closely with your academic and professional goals.

Step 3: Compare Your Qualifications

Review the requirements for each project and determine whether your background matches the skills being requested.

Relevant skills may include:

• Statistics
• Programming
• Data analysis
• Econometrics
• Research methods
• Literature review
• Economic theory
• Computational modeling
• Financial analysis

Step 4: Select Up to Three Projects

Applicants to the Dedicated Track can select up to three projects of interest.

It is advisable to prioritize projects where your academic background, technical skills, and research interests demonstrate a strong match.

Step 5: Prepare Your Application

Your application should clearly explain your research interests and demonstrate how your academic background, technical abilities, previous experience, and career objectives align with the projects you have selected.

Step 6: Submit the Application

The application opens on Thursday, September 3, 2026.

Applicants should consult the official Stanford GSB application page here for the complete application requirements and current closing date.

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Application Deadline

Application opening date: Thursday, September 3, 2026.

The information supplied for the program does not state a specific application closing deadline.

Applicants should therefore verify the current deadline directly through Stanford Graduate School of Business before submitting their applications.

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Important Things to Know Before Applying

1. The projects are multidisciplinary

Stanford encourages applicants to consider projects outside their primary academic discipline.

A project listed under economics, for example, may require programming, data analysis, policy knowledge, or other interdisciplinary skills.

2. Requirements differ by project

There is no single set of technical requirements for every position.

Some projects prioritize quantitative skills, while others emphasize research experience, statistics, programming, experiments, or economic theory.

3. Prior subject-specific experience is not always required

For example, the STAX Accounting project states that a background in public economics or accounting is not required.

The Global Capital Allocation Project also welcomes candidates with strong quantitative and programming skills with or without prior economics experience.

4. Programming and data skills can be valuable

Several projects involve programming and quantitative research.

Relevant tools and technologies mentioned include:

• Stata
• Python
• R
• GitHub
• Claude Code

Applicants should emphasize relevant technical skills in their applications where applicable.

5. Fellows participate in active research

The projects involve genuine faculty-led research rather than simply classroom-based study.

Depending on the project, fellows may collaborate with professors, PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and other researchers.

6. The Standard Track provides another option

If none of the Dedicated Track projects matches your interests, the Standard Track provides the opportunity to rotate between different research projects.

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Benefits of Participating in the Research Fellows Program

Although the supplied information does not describe a specific scholarship or financial package, the research experience itself can provide significant professional and academic value.

Depending on the project, fellows may gain experience in:

• Faculty-led academic research
• Empirical research
• Data analysis
• Econometrics
• Programming
• Computational modeling
• Experimental research
• Literature reviews
• Economic theory
• Policy analysis
• Financial research
• Data visualization
• Reproducible research
• Research presentations
• Working with large datasets

The experience can be especially useful for individuals considering future graduate study or research-focused careers.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Stanford GSB Research Fellows Program?

It is a research program that provides fellows with opportunities to work on faculty-led research projects at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

When does the application open?

The 2026 application opens on Thursday, September 3, 2026.

How many projects can I select?

Applicants to the Dedicated Track can select up to three projects of interest.

Which fields currently have open Dedicated Track projects?

The supplied information lists open projects in Accounting, Economic Analysis & Policy, Finance, and Organizational Behavior.

Are there currently Dedicated Track positions in Marketing?

No. Stanford states that dedicated positions in Marketing are not currently being offered.

Are there currently Dedicated Track positions in OIT?

No. Stanford states that dedicated positions in Operations, Information & Technology are not currently being offered.

Are there Dedicated Track positions in Political Economy?

No. Stanford states that there are currently no dedicated positions in Political Economy.

Do I need an economics degree?

Not necessarily.

Requirements vary by project. For example, the Global Capital Allocation Project welcomes applicants with strong quantitative and programming skills with or without prior economics experience.

Is accounting experience mandatory for the STAX Accounting project?

No.

Stanford states that a background in public economics or accounting is not required, although it would be helpful.

Do I need mathematical modeling experience for the Cultural Evolution project?

No.

Prior exposure to mathematical or computational modeling is considered a plus but is not required. Some background in statistics or data analysis using R or Python is expected.

Can international applicants apply?

The supplied program information does not identify a nationality-based restriction. Applicants from different countries should review the official Stanford application information and any applicable eligibility, employment, or immigration requirements.

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Conclusion

The Stanford Graduate School of Business Research Fellows Program offers an excellent opportunity for aspiring researchers to gain hands-on experience through faculty-led research at Stanford.

The Dedicated Research Fellow Track currently features projects covering taxation, accounting, economics, market design, international finance, asset pricing, financial regulation, organizational behavior, cultural evolution, data analysis, and computational research.

One of the major strengths of the program is the variety of research opportunities available. Candidates with accounting or public-policy interests can explore the Stanford Tax Lab, while applicants with strong quantitative and programming skills may be interested in the Global Capital Allocation Project. Those interested in market design can consider Shoshana Vasserman’s project, while candidates with statistics, R, or Python experience may find the Cultural Evolution project particularly relevant.

Applicants can select up to three projects of interest when applying to the Dedicated Track. Candidates who prefer broader research exposure can instead explore the Standard Track, which allows researchers to rotate between projects with different faculty members each quarter.

The application opens on September 3, 2026. Because the supplied announcement does not provide a closing deadline, applicants should confirm the latest deadline and complete application requirements through Stanford GSB before applying.

Official program information is available through the Stanford Graduate School of Business Research Fellows Program website.

For more global fellowship opportunities visit OFY Website HERE

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