The American Bankers Association today announced Jacob Moore as the recipient of its 2026 ABA Banking Research Dissertation Grant. The program provides economics or finance doctoral graduate students with $40,000 for one academic year to conduct research on the banking industry.
Moore is pursuing his doctorate in Real Estate and Urban Economics at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. His project will examine the spatial structure of the U.S. banking system and its impact on small business lending, focusing on homebuilders. Moore will analyze loan-level construction lending and property-level new home sales data to study the frictions in small business lending that may be contributing to the U.S. housing shortage.
“Through the ABA Banking Research Dissertation Grant Program, we aim to advance innovative research that equips banks to better serve their customers and strengthen the communities they support,” said Sayee Srinivasan, ABA chief economist. “Jacob’s novel research will help provide important insights into how the geography of the U.S. banking system shapes who gets to build, where and at what cost.”
ABA will begin accepting applications for the 2027 ABA Banking Research Dissertation Grant next Spring. Applicants for the grant must be enrolled in an economics (including business economics and agricultural economics) or finance doctoral program at an accredited college or university and have completed the required preliminary graduate coursework. Eligible research topics include the general business of banking, central bank liquidity facilities, small business lending, consumer banking including residential mortgages, agricultural lending, interbank/wholesale funding, banking and climate change, payments (e.g., debit and credit cards, stablecoins, fintech or alternate payment offerings), and financial stability.
