Projects for the Dedicated Research Fellow Track

Jinhwan Kim and Suzie Noh, assistant professors of accounting, are recruiting a research fellow to work on their research projects. Kim and Noh study whether and by how much corporate disclosures affect markets’ expectations as well as firms’ own or peer firms’ innovation and strategic investments.

Requirements
A bachelor’s degree or equivalent, SAS/Stata

Rebecca Lester, associate professor of accounting, is recruiting a research fellow to work on projects related to how international, federal, and local tax incentives influence corporate investment and employment decisions. In particular, this study will use new data to examine both the domestic and foreign presence of U.S. multinational firms and how changes in tax policies affect this presence. Results from the research are of broader interest to the business press and are relevant to today’s fiscal policy debates. You will be asked to help with data analysis, literature review, and statistical programming, thereby obtaining experience of the full research process.

Lester’s research broadly studies the role of reporting incentives and information frictions in facilitating or altering the effectiveness of cross-border, federal, and local tax incentives. Her work combines institutional accounting knowledge obtained through her prior work experience as a CPA with rigorous empirical methods to examine policy-relevant business tax issues.

Requirements
A bachelor’s degree or its equivalent, computer programming skills, and an interest in pursuing academic research is required. No prior knowledge of taxation is needed, but is helpful. Candidate will ideally have experience with statistical programming software such as Stata.

Shoshana Vasserman, assistant professor of economics, is recruiting a research fellow who will work on ongoing research projects involving the empirical evaluation and design of policies for changing marketplaces. Possible project topics include congestion pricing for road use 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 basic econometrics. Pending interest, there will be ample opportunity to learn and apply more advanced computational techniques as well as economic theory.

Requirements
A bachelor’s degree or its equivalent, a strong quantitative background, excellent computer 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.

Claudia Allende Santa Cruz, assistant professor of economics, is recruiting a research fellow to work closely with academic researchers. The research projects focus on understanding the effects of public policies in equilibrium, taking into account frictions that are specific to each industry (education, pharmaceutical markets, transportation). The frictions are embedded into structural microeconomic models to understand how they affect families’ and firms’ incentives.

The building blocks of each project are: (i) a model of demand and — in most cases — supply, (ii) rich administrative data, including novel records from governments, private companies, and self-collected data using surveys, and (iii) the use of exogenous sources of variation in the data from policy changes, natural experiments, or randomized control trials. The final component of each project (iv) is counterfactual policy simulations, in which the model is used to predict the equilibrium outcomes under different scenarios to understand the implications for relevant policy objectives and/or welfare.

Responsibilities

• Managing teams: Recruiting, training, and supervising both field-based and data operations teams consisting of project assistants, field managers, field-based surveyors, and other field staff.
• Supervising data collection while ensuring data quality and productivity
• Overseeing implementation of the evaluation in accordance with the research design
• Ensuring that the project complies with IRB and the data collection and security protocols
• Maintaining relationships with any external stakeholders involved with the research study
• Preparing documents and presentations for dissemination

• Bachelor’s degree in Economics, Computer Science or related fields
• Master's degree (exceptions can be made)
• The ideal candidate has some prior research experience and keen attention to detail, as well as a willingness to learn and enthusiasm for economics.
• Familiarity with data management and analysis is required and can further be developed, including Stata or R, Python, Matlab, and Julia. Prior experience working with large, computational difficult tasks, and familiarity with applied econometrics and machine learning is preferred, but interest and ambition to learn are sufficient.
• Experience in version control, GitHub, and LaTeX (and/or be willing to learn)
• Familiarity with RCTs is desirable.
• Excellent management, organizational, and troubleshooting skills
• Flexible and self-motivated with an ability to multitask
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• This position is ideal for candidates looking to develop their empirical research skills in preparation for applying to PhD programs in economics or related fields.