Ed Balls is to take up a new job in the US, as a Harvard University academic researching financial stability.

The former shadow chancellor, who was the highest profile Labour MP to lose their seat in the general election, has been made senior fellow at the university in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Balls, who is the husband of Labour leadership candidate Yvette Cooper, will be expected to be on campus for at least three to four weeks each term over the course of his year-long unpaid appointment at Harvard’s Kennedy school, which he attended as a scholar.

His brief covers European integration, international patterns of economic growth, investment, productivity, wages and employment.

John Haigh, co-director of the centre and executive dean of the Kennedy school, praised the former MP, a Harvard graduate, for his work in the public sector.

He said: “We’re delighted to welcome Ed Balls to the Mossavar-Rahmani business and government centre.

“Ed brings enormous depth and breadth of experience in the public sector and we’re confident he will make a valuable contribution to our students, to the centre, and to Harvard more generally.”

Balls, who lost his Morley and Outwood seat by 422 votes in May, said last month that he would not be “dashing back” to frontline politics. He ruled out playing a role in Cooper’s Labour leadership campaign and said he planned to “do more to help the rest of the family”.

Harvard said that Balls will be analysing international patterns of economic growth, investment, productivity, wages and employment and global policy responses to foster more inclusive prosperity.

It added that the senior fellows programme was “designed to strengthen the connection between theory and practice”, as the centre examines and develops policies at the intersection of business and government.