BlackRock Applied
Research Award 2018

What is the Applied Research Award?

Now in its fourth edition, the BlackRock Applied Research Award recognizes the top five job market papers submitted by PhD candidates on a practical topic pertaining to financial markets, economics, investment management, or risk management.

The Award will grant $25,000 to the winning job market paper submitted by PhD candidates. Job market papers should be based on quantitative research and provide practical solutions to the challenges faced by investors and risk managers.

The 2018 final was very competitive, with four other very promising researchers:

• Roberto Gómez Cram, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Finance Department
• Weiling Liu, Harvard University, Economics Department
• Mauricio Ulate, UC Berkeley, Economics Department
• Chenzi Xu, Harvard University, Economics Department

2018 Academic Panel

• Robert Engle, Michael Armellino Professor in the Management of Financial Services Finance, New York University Stern School of Business; Awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Economics
• Terry Hendershott, Professor in Finance & Operations and Information Technology Management, Willis H. Booth Chair in Banking and Finance, Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley
• Antoinette Schoar, Michael M. Koerner Professor of Entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan School of Management
• Andrew Ang, Blackrock, Managing Director, Head of Factor Investing Strategies
• Ron Kahn, BlackRock, Managing Director, Global Head of Systematic Equity Research

Want to apply?
What you need to know:

Candidates must send their applications to applied research award by October 29, 2018.

The BlackRock Applied Research Award Academic Panel will review all submissions and invite 5 finalists by November 20, 2018.
Finalists will be invited to defend their job market paper at our New York office on Wednesday, November 28, 2018.

Award determination will be made by BlackRock’s Applied Research Award Committee which consists of a panel of finance leaders from BlackRock and academia.

To be considered for the award the
application must contain:

• The candidate’s PhD job market paper. Important note: we request that all names and personal references be removed from the content in job market papers to ensure an unbiased review by our committee. This includes authors(s) names and affiliations, acknowledgments, seminars/conferences where the paper was presented, etc.
• The candidate’s resume
• A recommendation letter from the dissertation chair
• Confirmation of your presence in the coming job market and for the first time. This confirmation may be provided by the dissertation chair (including through the recommendation letter) or by the head of the PhD program or the school department.

*All documents included in your application should be titled beginning with your last name