Research Associates

Leila Bengali, PhD Graduate Student, Yale University

When I talk about my time as a research associate at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, I tell people that, as an Economics major, it was the best job I could have imagined. Not only was I able to use what I had learned about Economics from my studies in college, but I also had the opportunity to see how the theories I studied were being applied to address policy-relevant issues. One of the greatest benefits for me was gaining experience working with large data sets and learning how to write code to work with the data.

Christopher Candelaria, Assistant Professor, Vanderbilt University

Working as a research associate at the San Francisco Fed was instrumental in my decision to pursue an academic research career. While at the Fed, I had the opportunity to work with several economists on a variety of interesting projects, expand my knowledge in statistics and econometrics, and improve my skills in data management and analysis using programs such as Stata, MATLAB, and SAS. I was also able to have direct involvement in the research process by coauthoring research papers and economic letters; these research experiences confirmed my desire to become an academic. Given the Fed’s generous tuition benefit, I also took classes at UC Berkeley to increase my skill set.

Puneet Chehal, Assistant Professor, Emory University

When I applied to the San Francisco Fed’s research associate position, I was looking for opportunities to help me explore a future career in research and fulfill a personal desire to engage in public service work. The Research Department was a perfect fit because I could learn more about careers in economic research and participate in policy work. There are other agencies that offer policy-relevant research opportunities but central banks and in particular the SF Fed are unique. The Fed, like other central banks, is a modern remnant of historical institutions that played a pivotal role in US history. The significance of the work and emphasis on accountability to the American public was appealing to me. It was also helpful that I could work at the SF Fed as a new immigrant to the U.S. I immensely appreciated being a part of the culturally diverse staff. I also appreciated that past RAs in the SF Fed Research Department had transitioned to a wide array of career paths.

Elliot Marks, Director, Deployment & Operations, Smart Wires Inc.

The Fed gave me remarkable exposure to a wide range of economic and business problems early in my career. In my 5 years at the Fed (1 year in the RA program), I learned to write code to perform complex statistical analyses, participated in Board of Directors meetings with Fortune 500 executives, and received formal training in project management and Lean Six Sigma process improvement. Many leaders in the Bank—including Mary Daly, who is now the President and CEO—mentored me along the way.

Justin Weidner, Economist, Deutsche Bank

Coming into the San Francisco Fed, I was unsure of whether or not I wanted to even go to grad school, but seeing how the application of economic theory and rigorous empirical work directly informed policy at the Fed inspired me to continue with my academic career. As a research associate, I gained an aptitude for working with and analyzing data that has been the foundation of my career thus far. After my first year in grad school, I was able to quickly begin working for a professor (who became my advisor) as a research assistant on a data-intensive project looking at wealth and income surveys across multiple countries. My time as a research associate at the San Francisco Fed also gave me a great working knowledge of many different data sets, which has been incredibly useful at my current job covering the U.S. as an economist at Deutsche Bank.