U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission

Position Title/Short Description

Full Text of JOE Listing:

The Office of the Investor Advocate (OIAD) at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) anticipates having multiple full-time Ph.D. Economist, Statistician, and Social Scientist positions to fill during the 2020-2021 recruiting cycle. OIAD is an independent office within the SEC that advocates internally and externally on investor protection issues. Researchers in OIAD are expected to conduct policy-relevant research to advance OIAD’s mission. To that end, researchers are expected to develop and maintain strong policy and academic connections.

The positions will support OIAD’s investor testing initiative, POSITIER (Policy Oriented Stakeholder and Investor Testing for Innovative and Effective Regulation), which is widely recognized as one of the most dynamic research initiatives in government. POSITIER specializes in academic and policy research in multiple domains, including household finance, labor economics, behavioral economics, decision sciences, law and economics, and traditional finance.

Currently, our specific research streams relate to: disclosure effectiveness for better decision-making by retail investors; financial advice; investor perceptions and (non-)participation; investor behavior; and traditional finance topics relevant for investors (e.g., issues in the mutual fund market). In addition, our group conducts independent critiques of the economic analysis of rule proposals that are produced by other parts of the Commission.

Through POSITIER, OIAD has perhaps the most flexible and powerful suite of data capture tools to deploy of any government entity. OIAD principally conducts high quality experiments (field, lab, and survey-based), nationally representative probability-based surveys of households and firms, and supplemental qualitative studies. Over the past few years, we have also built exciting and unmatched capacities with administrative data.

We are seeking motivated candidates who are interested in performing high-quality academic and policy research. Candidates should possess specialized skills, and an interest in working in interdisciplinary teams of researchers from multiple fields. Candidates completing their Ph.D. in 2020 or 2021 are eligible. Those with an interest in: household finance, labor, behavioral economics, law and economics, finance (particularly the study of mutual funds, but also with interests in corporate finance and asset pricing), marketing, decision science, psychology, experiments, or survey methodology are strongly encouraged to apply.

Desired Qualifications for all positions:
• Ph.D. in Economics, Finance, Statistics, Decision Science, Marketing, Psychology or related fields
• An interest in investor issues or the study of investor behavior is desirable.
• Strong empirical research skills (e.g. econometrics, design of experiments, survey methodology). All candidates must be able to analyze existing data and help develop new datasets via surveys, experiments, administrative data, etc.
• An interest in working in a fast-paced policy environment is essential. Prior policy experience is desirable, but not required.

Anticipated Specific Roles:
Economists – The OIAD roles are most appropriate for economists with a background in household finance, labor, econometrics, behavioral economics/finance, law and economics, or related fields.
Financial Economist – Financial Economists should be able to serve as technical experts on investment products, markets, and asset pricing topics (particularly with investor-focused products like mutual funds and ETFs), or corporate governance issues. The majority of economists in the SEC as a whole are financial economists.

Decision Scientists – Decision Scientists should have specialized background in analyzing human judgments or behaviors, marketing, psychology or a related field.

Statistician – Statisticians should have a strong background in development of household finance and labor surveys, and/or in the design and analysis of experiments.

Other Details:
The SEC is not on the GS salary scale, and offers a highly competitive compensation and benefits package.
OIAD anticipates making both permanent and fellowship appointments. Fellowship appointments are initially 2 years, with the option to extend an additional two years.

Deadlines:
Please submit application materials (including a current CV, cover letter, reference letters, and representative research paper) to oiad.recruiting@sec.gov by November 22nd 2020. Expressions of interest will be considered on a rolling basis thereafter. Interviews will occur virtually. Questions about submitting materials may also be sent to oiad.recruiting@sec.gov.