Shawn Cole

Shawn Cole is an Associate Professor in the Finance Unit at Harvard Business School. His research examines corporate and household finance in emerging markets, with a focus on banking, microfinance, insurance, and the relationship between financial development and economic growth. He has worked in India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, and South Africa. He is an Affiliate of the Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT, dedicated to the use of randomized trials as a tool for learning what works in international development, as well as the Bureau of Research and Economic Analysis of Development. Before joining Harvard Business School, Professor Cole worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in the economic research department. He has also served as chair of the endowment management committee of the Telluride Association, a non-profit educational organization. He received a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2005, where he was an NSF and Javits Fellow, and an A.B. in Economics and German Literature from Cornell University.