[3] Both his parents were Jewish refugees during World War II who immigrated to the United States.

in economics from Princeton University in 1983 after completing a 118-page senior thesis titled "Pseudo-Securities: An Analysis of Financially Hedged Positions.

[10] On December 27, 2011, President Barack Obama announced that he planned to nominate Stein to fill one of the two vacancies on the seven-member Federal Reserve Board.

On May 15, 2012, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid motioned to invoke cloture and break the filibuster on both the nominations of Stein and of Powell.

[13] Stein's research covers subjects including behavioral finance and market efficiency; corporate investment and financing decisions; risk management; capital allocation inside firms; banking; financial regulation; and monetary policy.