mit finance phd placement

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Placement history.

The department plays an active role in assisting graduate students with career placement. In a typical year, every MIT Economics PhD graduate finds a job.

Over the past six years, the department has placed a total of 136 graduates in academic, research, and government jobs. Of these, 94 graduates (69%) chose positions at academic institutions and 37 graduates (27%) chose non-academic positions. Of the 94 academic placements, 38 (40%) were at top-15 US economics departments or top-10 US business schools. The tables below break out these proportions for each cohort and highlight some of our top placements.

All placements, 2019-2024

Faculty placements to top economics departments and business schools, 2019-2024.

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Here is data on finance PhD placements at top schools

Economist 9d4a

There is a lot of debate here about PhD programs in finance. Here is some data on the best departments (raw data in the second post). In this post, I first present summary stats on the PhD granting institution of the faculty at the top business schools. The list of the top schools is based on reputation and the ASU output rankings. I list the top 5 (in no order) as Chicago, NYU, Stanford, MIT, and Wharton. The next five (in no order) are Duke, HBS, Michigan, UCLA, and Northwestern. You can quarrel with my list of the top schools, but if you have issues I encourage you to add your favorite top schools to the data. One exception I admit is Columbia. I excluded it because they have a joint economics and finance department and I didn't want to try to characterize faculty as finance- or economics-oriented.

Across the 10 schools, there are 254 tenure or tenure track faculty, 145 in the top 5 and 109 in the second 5. The faculty sizes are Chicago (27), NYU (41), Stanford (17), MIT (19), Wharton (41), Duke (17), HBS (29), Michigan (20), UCLA (16), and Northwestern (27). The average (median) PhD grant-year of faculty is 1993.78 (1997), with faculty in the top 5 schools having earlier grant dates: 1992.8 (1995) in the top 5 versus 1995.0 (1998) in the second 5. The school with the oldest faculty is UCLA (median 1990) and the youngest is MIT (median 2000).

The ratio of young faculty (PhDs from 2006 to present) to all faculty is higher in the top 5 schools (26%) compared to the next 5 (19%). The prevalance of faculty with PhDs in economics is quite high, but lower for young faculty. Among all faculty at the top 5 schools, 46% have economics degrees. At the next 5, 37% have econ PhDs. Among the faculty who graduated in 2006 or later, 37% have economics degrees in the top 5 schools. For the next 5 schools, the percentage is 33%.

Now if we look at where these faculty have earned their PhDs, we get a sense of the quality of PhD programs. Chicago Finance and MIT Economics dominate the others, but only Chicago's rank holds in recent years. Across all schools and all years, of the 254 faculty members, 27 have PhDs from MIT Economics (10.6%) and 26 have PhDs from Chicago finance, or 10.2%. Following these, Harvard Economics has 20 (7.9%), followed by HBS Finance with 16 (6.3%) and Stanford finance with 14 (5.5%). These five PhD-granting departments account for 68% of all faculty in the top 10 business schools.

If we look only at faculty with PhDs granted in 2006 or later, Chicago Finance clearly dominates. Of the 59 faculty members with PhDs in 2006 or later in the top 10 schools, 6 have PhDs from Chicago finance, or 10.2%. The next highest is Stanford Finance with 5 (8.5%), then HBS finance and Princeton economics each have 4 (6.8%). Following these are MIT Finance, HBS Finance, and Duke, each with 3 (5.1%). If we further restrict placements to the top 5 since 2006, Chicago is even more dominant. Of the 38 faculty members in the top 5 finance departments who got their PhD in 2006 or later, 6 are from Chicago finance (15.8%). In fact all of the 6 Chicago finance 2006 and later PhDs are at top 5 departments. The next schools in the rank have half as many grads at top 5 schools, with Harvard Econ and Stanford finance with 3 each (7.9%). Next in rank are MIT finance, Stanford Econ, Michigan finance, Princeton Econ, and Columbia finance, all with two grads since 2006 in the top 5 schools. Compare this to Wharton's and Northwestern's PhD programs, each with just 1 PhD in the top 10 since 2006.

Economist 68ff

c98f is from Chicago. Confirmed.

Economist 6cc0

I'm a second year PhD student in Harvard Economics, did my undergrad at Berkeley. For readers unfamiliar with the inside-baseball, Berkeley is ranked somewhere in the 3-6 range, while Harvard and MIT duke it out over the 1 and 2 slots.

I was always impressed by the grad students in the Berkeley econ department, but as a group they're just not in the same league as my classmates here. The drop-off in input quality when you leave 02138/9 is pretty steep, and it must be even steeper when you look past the top 6-10. I mean this in the least arrogant way possible.

The consensus is that most of the value-added comes from interacting with your classmates, so the peer effects are dominant. In terms of teaching, I actually found the Berkeley faculty put in more effort, but the courses here are at a higher level. (Since Raj moved, there's a DiD estimator available...)

I can't speak to the quality of the advising elsewhere, but the dominance of the top schools self-perpetuates pretty easily. Because 2/3 of the faculty at the top 6 went to Harvard or MIT, any potential advisor I end up with has personal relationships with members of the faculty anywhere I'll be applying for a job. It's a comforting thought.

Economist e35e

^That is so annoying that you say that. I presented an analysis and the complete ****ing data. So why don't you check it yourself before making some stupid comment implying a bias. I'm not from Chicago, BTW.

Economist 0c0e

Economist 09ce

Economist 6027

Yeah OP good. Cheers! Thanks!

Economist de97

This is a first approximation but doesn't take into account the base rates. Whereas most finance departments have on average 3-5 students on the market every year MIT and Harvard econ departments tend to have less students in the finance market. If you control for the base rate, it becomes clear that MIT econ is clearly the best program even for people doing finance, possibly followed by Harvard Econ and then chicago booth.

Economist 3330

Juicy detail- mr least arrogant way possible has a restraining order out against him from another Harvard Econ grad student.

Economist e1c1

^from a swedish?

Details or it didn't happen

Economist 5323

The number of Chicago finance grads is almost twice as large as the number of Stanford/MIT finance grads or finance focused HBS bus/ec grads.

6 good jobs among 26 students isn't more impressive than 5 good jobs among 14 students.

Economist c075

Grammar issue: You use less if you cannot quantify the quantity. You use fewer if you can count the quantity.

So it is "fewer students".

Regardless of your zip code one shouldn't sound like a Neanderthal.

Economist 6e0b

Chicago Booth floods the market. Comparing positions at top schools only gives a very biased estimate.

Economist 55d9

OP here. I agree that it would be good to have the number of candidates per year. Some schools post this and some don't and the ones that do I think often don't fully report. Going on reported numbers for Chicago and Stanford, Chicago had 26 PhDs from 2006 to 2010 and Stanford had 11. So 6/26 (23%) of Chicago students place in the top 10 and 5/11 (45%) of Stanford students place in the top 10. It is hard to compare to Harvard Econ because they have large cohorts but over all fields in economics, same with Princeton.

Using the base numbers gives a picture of the percentage of students that place well. However, it is also useful to see these raw numbers because it is unlikely that Chicago can place double the number of students equally (in part because they are likely ranked against each other).

If anyone wants to try to collect total PhDs on the market for each department it would be helpful. I have done enough.

From the point of view of the student, it is per-capital placement that matters. Total placement matters at most for the department but is irrelevant from a student's perspective.

Economist 0ba9

I cant believe you don't have stern. This is a joke/

^ You do know that NYU finance is Stern, right?

Confirmed: 9630 is a moron.

Reply »

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Gordon y billard professor of finance.

Paul Asquith is the Gordon Y Billard Professor of Finance and a Professor of Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management.Asquith is a specialist in corporate finance and a media source for the field of corporate finance and control, including…

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Hui Chen is the Nomura Professor of Finance and a Professor of Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management.His research focuses on asset pricing and its connections with corporate finance. Chen is particularly interested in the interactions…

Taha Choukhmane

Class of 1947 career development assistant professor.

Taha Choukhmane is the Class of 1947 Career Development Assistant Professor and an Assistant Professor of Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management.He was most recently a postdoctoral fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His…

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Nomura professor of finance, emeritus.

John Cox is the Nomura Professor of Finance, Emeritus at the MIT Sloan School of Management.A leading authority on corporate finance and finance theory, Cox has developed an inter-temporal financial model broad enough to include the fundamental…

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Example PhD Thesis Topics

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“Essays in Financial Economics”

Jiaheng Yu (2023)

"Essays on Corporate Finance and Financial Markets"

Parinitha Sastry (2022)

"Essays on Finance and Climate Risk"

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"Essays in Financial Economics"

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Student Placements

Here’s a list of placements, by program and year of graduation, over the past 10 years:

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Applied Economics

The University of Alabama, Culverhouse College of Business Baylor University, Hankamer School of Business

World bank Post doc at NYU Furman center. Treasury’s Office of Financial Research. UT Dallas National University of Singapore

Brattle Group University of Wisconsin Business,  Post Doc at Treasury Brattle Group Cornerstone Research Rutgers Business School Cornerstone Research

OECD Federal Reserve Board NYU, Postdoc and Hong Kong University Princeton, Postdoc

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill University of Texas, Austin Bank of Canada NBER, Postdoc

Stanford University Cornerstone The Vanguard Group

Michigan State Federal Reserve Bank of New York (Post-doc at Chicago Booth) London School of Economics

Cornell University Microsoft Research NERA Economic Consulting University of Colorado, Boulder

Econ One Harvard Business School National Taiwan University Nuna Health Toulouse School of Economics University of California, Merced

Baruch College Clemson University Northwestern University Putnam Investments Research Affiliates

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Duke University Indiana University University of Delaware University of Wisconsin, Madison

Berkeley Research Group University of Michigan U.S. Treasury Department Sungkyunkwan University, SKK GSB

Note: The Applied Economics program was created in Fall 2008 and, therefore, has placed students beginning 2013.

Ethics & Legal Studies

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The Ohio State University, Fisher College of Business Vanderbilt University, Owen Graduate School of Management

BlackRock Cornerstone Research Drexel University, LeBow College of Business Harvard Business School Rothschild & Co

BlackRock Boston Consulting Group Columbia Business School Kenan-Flagler Business School of the University of North Carolina McGill University MIT Sloan Universidad Carlos III de Madrid University of Hong Kong

Capital One Stockholm School of Economics

Arizona State University Hong Kong University of Science and Technology University of Florida University of Warwick, Warwick Business School

BI Norwegian Business School INSEAD London Business School (2 placements) Peking University University of Hong Kong (2 placements)

Carnegie Mellon University Cornell University Cornerstone Research Peking University Southern Methodist University University of Wisconsin, Madison

AQR Capital Management Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business Citadel Tulane University, Freeman School of Business University of Chicago, Booth School of Business University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business

Federal Reserve Bank of New York University of Michigan University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Boston College Cornell University Federal Reserve Board Michigan State University Ohio State University University of Houston

Google University of California, Los Angeles University of Delaware University of Minnesota University of Oxford

Google University of Delaware

Mingshi Investment Management Peking University Southern Methodist University

Carnegie Mellon University University of British Columbia University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill University of Rochester University of Wisconsin, Madison

Cornell University Getulio Vargas Foundation Southern Methodist University U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission University of Southern California

New York University University of Florida

Cornerstone Research KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) University of Iowa University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Aalto University School of Economics University of California, San Diego

Federal Reserve Board

Health Care Management & Economics

Charles River Associates Baylor University Cornell University Medical Campus (Weill) University of Miami USAID Emory University Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

Harvard Business School New York University University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine NYU Langone Medical Center Analysis Group

University of Virginia Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management RAND Corporation University of Pittsburgh Analysis Group

Indiana University Bloomington John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine US Department of Health and Human Services

Asian Development Bank RAND Corporation

RAND Corporation

Cornell Medical School RAND Corporation Thomas Jefferson University University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine Urban Institute

RAND-UCLA (Joint Post-Doc) San Diego State University Temple University, Fox Business School

Columbia University Peking University Urban Institute US Army Medical Department Telehealth Office

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Brigham and Women’s Hospital University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine

Massachusetts General Hospital

University of Missouri University of Porto, Faculty of Economics

Bocconi University Ohio State University University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business Rice University New York University, Stern School of Business Massachusetts Institute of Technology

George Washington University University of Texas, Austin

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Sungkyunkwan University

Cornell University Stanford University

University of Texas, Austin University of Wisconsin, Madison

IESE Business School, Barcelona Campus University of LUISS (Rome)

INSEAD Purdue University University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill University of Pittsburgh University of South Carolina University of Texas, Austin

George Washington University University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill University of Washington, Bothell

Georgia State University Moscow School of Management, SKLOKOVO Institute for Emerging Market Studies Nanyang Business School Rutgers University

George Washington University Harvard University INSEAD University of Maryland, Smith School of Business University of Minnesota, Carlson School Washington University, St. Louis

New York University University of Hartford

Instituto De Empresa University of Michigan

Brigham Young University Florida International University National University of Singapore New York Department of Economics University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign

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Operations, Information and Decisions

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University of Florida Carnegie Mellon University Columbia University Rutgers University

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Voleon Group

University of Chicago, Booth School of Business University of California, Berkeley Emory University Rutgers University Citadel Air Liquide

INSEAD Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management University of Vienna DV01

CLVmetrics IBM Stanford University

Carnegie Mellon University Columbia University Queens College Rice University Walmart Labs

Columbia University New Jersey Institute of Technology Yahoo Labs

The Climate Corporation Credit Suisse Rutgers University University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Krossover Intelligence Stanford University

Northwestern University US Census Bureau

Harvard University Princeton University University of Pennsylvania

London School of Economics Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Colombia University, Earth Institute (Post-Doc)

Yale University