American Bankers Association Banking Research Dissertation Grant Program

Jacob Moore of the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business has been selected as the recipient of ABA’s 2026–2027 Banking Research Dissertation Grant.

Applications for the 2027–2028 research grant will be accepted in Spring 2027. Here are the criteria to consider in the meantime.

Eligible research topics on the US banking system:

• General Business of Banking
• Central bank liquidity facilities
• Interconnections with non-bank financial institutions
• Small business lending
• Consumer banking, including residential mortgages
• Agricultural lending
• Interbank/wholesale funding
• Payments (e.g., debit & credit cards, stablecoins, fin-tech or alternate payment offerings)
• Financial stability

Application Requirements

• Must be enrolled in a PhD economics (including business economics and agricultural economics) or finance program at an accredited college or university, and have completed required preliminary graduate coursework 
• Conducting independent research, with a preference for quantitative work
• Submission of a research prospectus (5 pages maximum), transcript and a letter of endorsement from the student’s dissertation advisor
• First degree relatives or household members of current ABA employees are not eligible for this grant

Note:

• ABA does not place any restrictions on the ultimate results of the funded research or any publication outlet.
• ABA does not assert any intellectual property rights on the supported research and will also not be providing any other resources in support of the research conducted.

About the American Bankers Association

The American Bankers Association is the voice of the nation’s $26.1 trillion banking industry, which is composed of small, regional and large banks that together employ over 2 million people, safeguard $20.5 trillion in deposits and extend $13.7 trillion in loans.