Microsoft Research theme: Economics and Computation
Microsoft Research Lab – New York City

Economics and Computation

The predoctoral program in the Economics and Computation group at MSR New England and New York City is designed to offer recent graduates research experience prior to pursuing a PhD in economics, information systems, computational social science, or computer science (with a focus in algorithmic economics or a similar subfield). The program is a full-time two-year appointment in Cambridge, MA or New York City, NY.  Predocs work alongside MSR economists on cutting-edge research, providing coding, data analysis, or similar support, gaining valuable skills to help them become successful graduate students, while building critical connections for future research projects. The predocs who graduated the program have gone on to Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Northwestern, Stanford GSB, University of Chicago and Yale. Many of our predocs have taken classes at Harvard or MIT to augment their preparation for graduate school.  

Predoc applications

We are looking for pre-doctoral applicants for summer of 2025. The application deadline is October 28 at 5pm EST.

Apply Here

Below are the previous predoctoral researchers by the year they joined and their placement afterwards. 

Current predoctoral researchers

  • Kiran Dwivedi (2023)
  • Esther Plotnick (2024)
  • Will Wang (2024)
  • Neil He (2024)

Previous predoctoral researchers

Name (Placement after predoc, final year of predoc)

  • Hoang Nguyen (Ph.D. in Economics at Brown University, 2024)
  • Jack Cenatempo (Ph.D. in Economics at Columbia University, 2024)
  • Sidharth Satya (Ph.D. in Economics at Brown University, 2024)
  • Brian Morris (Ph.D. Managment Science and Engineering at Stanford, 2023)
  • Daniel Cohen (Ph.D. at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, 2023)
  • Federico Llarena (Ph.D Economic Analysis & Policy at Stanford GSB, 2022)
  • Bora Ozaltun (Ph.D Berkeley Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, 2022)
  • Aakaash Rao (Ph.D. in Economics at Harvard University, 2019)
  • Anna Croley (Ph.D. in Economics at Yale University, 2019)
  • Victoria Pu (Ph.D. in Operations Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019)
  • Michael Butler (M.S. in Computational Science and Engineering at Harvard University, 2018)
  • Raj Bhargava (Ph.D. in Jurisprudence and Social Policy at Berkeley Law, 2018)
  • Kelly Wagman (M.A. in Comparative Media Studies at the MIT, then Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Chicago, 2017)
  • Surya Ierokomos (Ph.D. in Marketing at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, 2017)
  • Tim O’Connor (2016)
  • Alex Moehring (Ph.D. in Information Technology at the MIT Sloan School of Management, 2016)
  • Aaron Kaye (Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, 2015)
  • Michael Kurish (Ph.D. in Marketing at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, 2015)
  • Eva Lyubich (Ph.D. in Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, 2014)
  • Matt Hlavacek (Ph.D. in Operations Research at Columbia University, 2014)
  • Sebastian Steffen (Ph.D. in Information Technology at the MIT Sloan School of Management, 2014)
  • Siddarth Viswanathan (2014)
  • Ishita Chordia (Ph.D. in Information Science at the University of Washington, 2013)
  • Jonathan Gu (Ph.D. in Economics at the University of California, Los Angeles, 2013)
  • Kyle Miller (Ph.D. in Mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, 2013)
  • Christian Perez (2013)
  • Rob Donnelly (Ph.D. in Economics at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, 2012)
  • Samuel Grondahl (Ph.D. in Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012)
  • Zhenyu Lai (Ph.D. in Economics at Harvard University, 2012)
  • Zarek Brot-Goldberg (Ph.D. in Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, 2011)
  • Bryan Callaway (M.S. at Stanford University, 2011)
  • Jeff Qiu (Ph.D. in Economics at Yale University, 2011)
  • Daniel Waldinger (Ph.D. in Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2011)
  • Andrew Bacher-Hicks (Ph.D. in Public Policy at the Kennedy School at Harvard University, 2010)
  • Jiashuo (Josh) Feng (Ph.D. in Economics at Harvard University, 2010)
  • Alex Limonov (Ph.D. at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, 2010)
  • Marco Martinez del Angel (Ph.D. at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, 2010)
  • Chris Sullivan (Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Michigan, 2009)