Economics PhD - Benchmark Specialist

About the job

Mercor connects elite creative and technical talent with leading AI research labs. Headquartered in San Francisco, our investors include Benchmark, General Catalyst, Peter Thiel, Adam D'Angelo, Larry Summers, and Jack Dorsey.

Position: Applied Economics & Finance Benchmark Specialist

Type:Contract

Compensation:$77–$98/hour

Location:Remote

Commitment:10+ hours/week

Role Responsibilities

• Author original economics and finance questions that test deep conceptual understanding, not surface-level recall.
• Ensure questions are unambiguous, self-contained, and precisely defined. Include all necessary information in the problem statement.
• Rate each question's difficulty: Medium (intro undergraduate), Hard (advanced undergraduate), or Expert (post-graduate and above).
• Provide 1 correct answer and 9 plausible but subtly incorrect alternatives that challenge expert-level solvers.
• Write step-by-step Chain-of-Thought solutions with clear, concise intermediate steps in markdown format.
• Supply 1–5 academic references per question from reputable sources like peer-reviewed journals and university repositories.
• For verification tasks: flag issues with clarity, completeness, precision, or solvability and justify any edits made.

Qualifications

• Must-Have
  • PhD or doctoral candidate in Economics, Finance, or a closely related field.
  • Master's degree considered for candidates with exceptional depth in a specific subdomain.
  • Strong command of graduate-level economic theory, quantitative methods, and financial modeling.
  • Excellent written English and ability to express complex ideas clearly and concisely.
• Preferred
  • Experience with academic research, CFA/CPA certification, or financial industry expertise is a strong plus.