Economics PhD - Benchmark Specialist

Mercor; New York (NY); On-site; USD 83,000 - 138,000; Full time

Job summary

Mercor is seeking expert economists and finance professionals to author and review high-quality academic assessment content for an AI research initiative. You will write and verify rigorous multiple-choice questions across core economics and finance domains, evaluate solution quality, and help establish gold-standard benchmarks used to advance AI capabilities.

You will be assigned one of two task types: Question Authoring or Question Verification, with clear criteria for difficulty, accuracy,

Qualifications

• PhD or doctoral candidate required or highly advanced experience in economics/finance.
• Strong command of graduate-level economic theory and quantitative methods.
• Experience with academic research and financial modeling is a strong plus.
• Excellent written English with ability to express complex ideas clearly.

Responsibilities

• Author original economics and finance questions that test deep conceptual understanding.
• Rate each question's difficulty: Medium, Hard, or Expert.
• Provide 1 correct answer and 9 plausible alternatives with subtle distinctions.
• Write step-by-step Chain-of-Thought solutions with intermediate steps.

Skills

Economics expertise

Finance modeling

Education

PhD or doctoral candidate in Economics/Finance

Master's degree in Economics/Finance

Job description

Role Overview

We are seeking expert economists and finance professionals to author and review high-quality academic assessment content for an AI research initiative. You will write and verify rigorous multiple-choice questions across core economics and finance domains, evaluate solution quality, and help establish gold-standard benchmarks used to advance AI capabilities.

You will be assigned one of two task types:

• Question Authoring — Create original, challenging multiple-choice questions in your area of expertise, rate their difficulty, and submit them for review.




• Question Verification — Review pre-written questions for accuracy, clarity, and rigor. Edit where needed, rate difficulty, and document any changes made.

Economics & Finance Domains Covered

Algorithmic Trading & Market Microstructure, Macroprudential Policy, Behavioral Finance & Experimental Economics, Urban Economics, Tokenomics & Decentralized Finance.

Key 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 — all necessary information must be 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 (peer-reviewed journals, university repositories)




• For verification tasks: flag issues with clarity, completeness, precision, or solvability and justify any edits made

Ideal Qualifications

• 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




• Experience with academic research, CFA/CPA certification, or financial industry expertise is a strong plus




• Excellent written English and ability to express complex ideas clearly and concisely

More About the Opportunity

• Expected commitment: 10+ hours/week




• Asynchronous, fully remote work