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Do you find yourself thinking about about why our economy works the way it does, or how to make it better? Wondering whether a career in economic policy research is right for you? A SIEPR Predoctoral Research Fellowship can help you answer these questions!

SIEPR Predoctoral Research Fellowships - Common Application

SIEPR'S common application for predoctoral research fellowship positions opened on Monday, September 30, 2024. For priority consideration, candidates should submit all application materials by 5pm on Monday, October 21, 2024.

Available Research Projects

A Long-term Perspective on Immigration and Equality of Opportunity () 

Long-term Perspective on Immigration and Equality of Opportunity: The predoctoral research fellow will assist in various projects that bring data and a long-run perspective on immigration, education, and equality of opportunity in the US. The fellow will help assemble and harmonize datasets, perform econometric analysis, conduct deep historical research, and work on paper drafts. Professor Abramitzky’s most recent fellows helped put together the and provided research assistance for research underlying the recent book, .  A strong interest in this research agenda, which can be found on his is preferred. Qualifications: The ideal candidate will have prior coding experience, solid quantitative and programming background, strong communication and interpersonal skills, ability to work independently to solve problems, and a long term interest in economic research. 

A Long-term Perspective on Immigration and Equality of Opportunity () and Economic Effects of California Business Taxation () - This position is for one predoctoral research fellow who will split their time working on both projects. The fellow will be co-mentored by both professors.

A Long-term Perspective on Immigration and Equality of Opportunity: The predoctoral research fellow will assist in various projects that bring data and a long-run perspective on immigration, education, and equality of opportunity in the US. The fellow will help assemble and harmonize datasets, perform econometric analysis, conduct deep historical research, and work on paper drafts. Professor Abramitzky’s most recent fellows helped put together the and provided research assistance for research underlying the recent book, .  A strong interest in this research agenda, which can be found on his is preferred. Economic Effects of California Business Taxation: Professor Lester is looking for a pre-doctoral fellow for projects that examine the economic effects of business taxation policies. In particular, this project will use unique and novel California tax data to study questions related to business location decisions and employment effects. These projects provide new evidence on whether, how, and to what extent California tax policies affect local economic development across neighborhoods, cities, counties, and the state. The pre-doctoral fellow will be engaged in all parts of the research and policy-related work, from understanding relevant academic work, to data analysis and estimation, to preparation of the presentation and academic manuscript. Qualifications for this co-mentored position: The ideal candidate will have prior coding experience, solid quantitative and programming background, strong communication and interpersonal skills, ability to work independently to solve problems, and a long-term interest in economic and business research.

ºÃÉ«App Environmental and Energy Policy Analysis Center ()

NOTE: Although applications for this position are being collected here, this is an independent search conducted by Professor Allcott. This position is not part of the SIEPR Predoctoral Research Fellows Program.

Do you want to use economics to help address climate change and make better environmental policy? The ºÃÉ«App Environmental and Energy Policy Analysis Center (SEEPAC) is recruiting a post-baccalaureate research assistant to work with Professor Hunt Allcott and other collaborators.  Projects might include: working with electric utilities on randomized experiments to increase energy efficiency; analyzing electricity market data to quantify the benefits of retiring coal power plants; analyzing many terabytes of data from Nielsen to understand what is driving trends toward more sustainable consumption; working with a large grocer on experiments to measure consumer responses to eco-labeling and carbon-inclusive pricing; modeling and quantifying corporate social and environmental impact; and/or other work that combines the technical rigor of economics with the mission of fighting climate change. Qualifications:  Experience in (or demonstrable ability to quickly learn) data analysis programs such as Stata, R, and Python. Clear interest in doing a PhD in economics or a closely related field.

Inequality in America (Lukas Althoff) - POSITION FILLED

This Pre-Doctoral Research Assistant role focuses on investigating how key institutions, policies, and innovations shape economic inequality in America. Using big data and techniques from applied microeconomics, labor economics, and economic history, you'll contribute to projects such as analyzing the post-World War II growth of the American middle class and examining how AI advancements affect labor market inequality and human capital. Your responsibilities will span the entire research process, from idea generation and literature reviews to data collection and analysis. We seek highly motivated candidates with strong quantitative skills, programming experience, and a passion for problem-solving. The ideal applicant works independently and aims to pursue a PhD in economics or a related field. While coding proficiency is essential (Stata experience preferred, with LaTeX, R, Python, and web scraping as valuable additions), a background in economics is not required. We strongly encourage candidates with robust technical skills and an interest in exploring economics to apply.

Macroeconomics, International Trade, Economic Geography and the Economics of Climate Change ( and )

Professors Bilal and Kleinman are looking for two research assistants to work on a range of projects at the intersection of Macroeconomics, International Trade, Economic Geography and the Economics of Climate Change. Key research projects would include the dynamics of local economies, the impact of climate change, the spatial organization of firms, and spillovers between regions and countries. Projects typically involve working with and analyzing large-scale datasets and analyzing multi-region and multi-country quantitative models. Qualifications: strong quantitative and programming skills, with proficiency in statistical software such as Stata, R, Python, or Julia. Preference is given to applicants with a demonstrated interest in Macroeconomics, International Trade, Economic Geography and the Economics of Climate Change, as well as experience working with models and data from these fields.

Employees and firms economics research () - POSITION FILLED

You will be working on three topics. One focuses on the surge in working from home following the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been perhaps the largest change to US labor markets since World War II. Everything from start-up rates to city center growth to business lunches to fertility rates have been impacted. Indeed, it is hard to find any part of the economy that has not been affected by the roughly 100 million people who now work from home every day.  The second is changing economic uncertainty, which plays a key role in shaping financial and real markets. Uncertainty jumped with the pandemic, but also other major geo-political events like the Trump and Brexit 2016 votes, Ukraine and Middle-Eastern wars, and the Financial crisis. Finally, I have a long research project investment examining the relationship between management practices and firm performance. This project will involve analyzing a number of big-data sets including payroll, firm accounts, surveys, stock-returns and housing prices. You will work with Nicholas Bloom, as well as several co-authors including Steven Davis, Raffaella Sadun, John Van Reenen, and Scott Baker. Predocs that genuinely contribute to the research  will have the opportunity to become co-authors on research projects - the aim of the predoc is both research creation and developing a long-run co-author relationship. Qualifications: 1) strong quantitative and programming background, 2) ability to work independently to solve problems, and 3) long-term interest in economic research. 

Improving decision-making in personal and public finance (Michael Boskin)

The predoc will engage in a range of activities from literature reviews and critical assessments to cleaning and using datasets in statistical analyses. While helping with ongoing research, the hope is the predoc will engage in new research, as well. Qualifications: A background and interest in economics, evidenced by education and any work experience or previous research involvement, plus multitasking and quantitative skills such as use of Stata or other programs.

Empirical analysis of regulation in credit and healthcare markets ()

Professor Jose Ignacio Cuesta is working on a set of projects that analyze the regulation of credit and healthcare markets, including the role of screening technology in credit markets, the design of mortgage refinancing policies, the roles of public procurement and public provision in lowering drug prices, the design of health insurance markets, the impacts of vertical integration in healthcare. The projects use novel large datasets to develop a variety of analyses, that range from exploiting policy variation to study the effects of the policy on market outcomes, implementing and analyzing field experiments, and estimating structural models of consumer and firm behavior to study the effects of counterfactual policies and measure welfare effects. The fellow will help the team collect, clean, process, and analyze the data. The fellow will be exposed to a variety of methods commonly used in applied microeconomics, and obtain experience employing them in practice. Qualifications:  A strong quantitative background, experience programming in statistical software, ability to work independently, and overall enthusiasm for research in economics.

Operations management and economics: The ongoing transformation of energy markets towards sustainability ()

The predoctoral fellow will assemble and analyze large datasets, apply econometric and machine learning methods, and contribute to research papers. This role will dive into critical aspects of energy transition, including market design for emerging technologies, the environmental and distributional impacts of energy policies, and the competitive dynamics within electricity markets. Qualifications: The ideal candidate will have prior coding experience, a solid quantitative and empirical background, and an interest in decarbonization and the energy transition.

Economic policy research (Neale Mahoney)

Professor Mahoney is looking for research assistants to work with him on a broad portfolio of economic research and economic policy projects. This includes economic research on U.S. healthcare, consumer financial, and energy markets. It also includes economic policy analysis on topics of federal and California policy interest. Research assistants will work on all aspects of research projects -- from data analysis, to causal and structural estimation, to slide preparation and paper writing -- and all aspects of policy work -- from background analysis, to memo writing, to media prep and stakeholder meetings. The ideal candidate will have (i)  strong quantitative and computer skills, including programming,  (ii) strong communication and interpersonal skills, (iii) the ability to work independently to solve problems sometimes on tight timelines, and (iv) a long-term interest in economic policy and economic research. Background in economics is a plus, but not necessary—I welcome candidates with strong technical or policy backgrounds who are looking for more exposure to economics.

Immigration-related policies across the globe ()

Using empirical evidence, these projects focus on measuring the impact of key immigration-related policies across the globe, with a focus on understanding how migration can act as a poverty alleviation strategy. The work may involve survey design and the statistical analysis of original data at the household and community level. Qualifications: Strong interest in migration. Programming experience in Stata and/or R strongly preferred. Prior experience designing or working with household survey data is a plus.

Household consumer finance and financial intermediation ()

Professor Seru researches several topics in household consumer finance and financial intermediation, including the rising role of fintech and big tech firms, role of financial advertising in consumer choice, role of regulation and role of technological innovation in shaping the intermediation sector and beyond. These projects will use large-scale data sets primarily from the United States, and the analysis will generate research and scholarship that is policy relevant. The fellow will help the team clean, process, analyze and present the data towards these goals using programs such as Stata, R or Python. Qualifications: The ideal candidate brings both enthusiasm for research and strong coding experience, with preference given to those with prior knowledge of either Stata, R, or Python. 

The family origins of economic inequality ()

Professor Voena is looking for research assistantship on several projects that study the economic implications of household decision-making, particularly its effect on economic and gender inequality. Examples are how family decision-making affects human capital investments, labor supply, savings, migration, and entrepreneurship. The research assistant will be involved in projects at different stages of development, gaining exposure to many research methods and aspects of the research production. Qualifications: The ideal candidate will have (i) a strong quantitative background, (ii) strong computer skills, including programming, (iii) the ability to work independently to solve problems, and (iv) a long-term interest in pursuing research in economics. 

Policies for changing marketplaces () - POSITION FILLED

Professor Vasserman is looking for a for a predoctoral research fellow to assist in work on a collection of research projects involving the empirical evaluation and design of policies for changing marketplaces. Possible project topics include congestion pricing for road use, network reliability for container shipping, and supply & demand pressures for local news, and will likely involve empirical work to develop and analyze never-before-seen data from large-scale ongoing experiments.  Results from the research are of direct policy relevance and may be reported in white papers and mainstream media publications in addition to technical academic publications. The fellow will be expected to contribute to the different aspects of empirical work involved in the project, including data management, munging, visualization, simulation and econometrics. Pending interest, there will be ample opportunity to learn and apply more advanced computational techniques as well as economic theory. The fellow can also expect to work in a team setting, in which they will get to collaborate with and learn from faculty members and older students/fellows. A bachelor’s degree or its equivalent, a strong quantitative background, excellent programming skills, and a serious interest in pursuing research in economics. A background in economics is helpful but not necessary. Previous research experience is a plus. Intellectual curiosity and a desire to learn how to do things well can compensate for most technical qualifications.