Shawn Cole is an associate professor in the Finance Unit at Harvard Business School, where he teaches a second-year elective course “Business at the Base of the Pyramid.” He has also taught FIN1 and FIN2 in the core curriculum, as well various executive education courses.

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 MIT’s Jameel Poverty Action Lab, and the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development.

Before joining the 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.

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