Development Economics RA Job

I am looking to hire one full-time Research Assistant (RA) to help me with my research in Bihar. There will be two primary assignments: (a) providing support for a white paper on the state of development in Bihar, and (b) scoping work for a prospective study on community-led monitoring and social accountability.

JOB DESCRIPTION:

• RA will be responsible for various aspects of research such as data preparation, conducting data analysis, managing field surveys, liaising with government and non-profit stakeholders, preparing presentations and writing reports.

• RA will work with unique administrative datasets and survey data which captures various aspects of human development, including missing dimensions of poverty.

• Ideally, the RA would begin work from March 1, 2022 and commit to work for at least 6 months.

SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS:

• Master’s degree with strong academic record and quantitative skills, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

• While a degree in economics is not required per se, candidates should have strong interests in empirical economics.

• Proficiency in programing is key, and candidate should be comfortable coding in Stata or R. Familiarity with working on the command line and using a high-performance computing cluster is desirable.

• Candidates with prior research experience, especially those who have worked with large datasets, are strongly preferred. (The largest dataset that will be analyzed as part of the study has 80 million records.)

BENEFITS:

• Salary is competitive, and compensation will be commensurate with experience.

• The RA will have the opportunity to travel, gain field exposure and learn practical skills required to succeed in a graduate program in economics, public policy or a related discipline.

• The RA will be join a small community of RAs and will be part of a dev econ reading group. There will be significant scope for professional development and mentoring as well. Previous RAs have gained admission at top PhD programs like UC San Diego and National University Singapore.

HOW TO APPLY?

• Interested candidates should complete this online form.

• Candidates belonging to SC, ST, OBC, EWS, PwD community or any group that is under-represented in the economics profession are particularly encouraged to apply.

• Due to the volume of applications received, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

• Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis.

LOCATION:

Bihar (possibility of remote work could be considered)

Image credit: Houlton, J. W. (1949). Bihar: The Heart of India. Orient Longmans.